What is social engineering?

This is a very interesting article from MalwareBytes and things that can have consequences for you.

What is social engineering?

https://www.malwarebytes.com/social-engineering/?utm_source=double-opt-in&utm_medium=email-internal-b2c&utm_campaign=EM-B2C-2020-January-newsletter-Issue2&utm_content=how-not-to-buy-drugs-on-internet

Iran cyber warning!!!

National Cyber Awareness System:

AA20-006A: Potential for Iranian Cyber Response to U.S. Military Strike in Baghdad

01/06/2020 03:01 PM EST

Original release date: January 6, 2020

Summary

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is sharing the following information with the cybersecurity community as a primer for assisting in the protection of our Nation’s critical infrastructure in light of the current tensions between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States and Iran’s historic use of cyber offensive activities to retaliate against perceived harm. Foremost, CISA recommends organizations take the following actions:

1. Adopt a state of heightened awareness. This includes minimizing coverage gaps in personnel availability, more consistently consuming relevant threat intelligence, and making sure emergency call trees are up to date.
2. Increase organizational vigilance. Ensure security personnel are monitoring key internal security capabilities and that they know how to identify anomalous behavior. Flag any known Iranian indicators of compromise and tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) for immediate response.
3. Confirm reporting processes. Ensure personnel know how and when to report an incident. The well-being of an organization’s workforce and cyber infrastructure depends on awareness of threat activity. Consider reporting incidents to CISA to help serve as part of CISA’s early warning system (see Contact Information section below).
4. Exercise organizational incident response plans. Ensure personnel are familiar with the key steps they need to take during an incident. Do they have the accesses they need? Do they know the processes? Are your various data sources logging as expected? Ensure personnel are positioned to act in a calm and unified manner.

Technical Details

Iranian Cyber Threat Profile

Iran has a history of leveraging asymmetric tactics to pursue national interests beyond its conventional capabilities. More recently, its use of offensive cyber operations is an extension of that doctrine. Iran has exercised its increasingly sophisticated capabilities to suppress both social and political perspectives deemed dangerous to Iran and to harm regional and international opponents.
Iranian cyber threat actors have continuously improved their offensive cyber capabilities. They continue to engage in more “conventional” activities ranging from website defacement, distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, and theft of personally identifiable information (PII), but they have also demonstrated a willingness to push the boundaries of their activities, which include destructive wiper malware and, potentially, cyber-enabled kinetic attacks.
The U.S. intelligence community and various private sector threat intelligence organizations have identified the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a driving force behind Iranian state-sponsored cyberattacks–either through contractors in the Iranian private sector or by the IRGC itself.

Iranian Cyber Activity

According to open-source information, offensive cyber operations targeting a variety of industries and organizations—including financial services, energy, government facilities, chemical, healthcare, critical manufacturing, communications, and the defense industrial base—have been attributed, or allegedly attributed, to the Iranian government. The same reporting has associated Iranian actors with a range of high-profile attacks, including the following:

• Late 2011 to Mid-2013 – DDoS Targeting U.S. Financial Sector: In response to this activity, in March 2016, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted seven Iranian actors employed by companies performing work on behalf of the IRGC for conducting DDoS attacks primarily targeting the public-facing websites of U.S. banks. The attacks prevented customers from accessing their accounts and cost the banks millions of dollars in remediation. [1] 
• August/September 2013 – Unauthorized Access to Dam in New York State: In response, in March 2016, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted one Iranian actor employed by a company performing work on behalf of the IRGC for illegally accessing the supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems of the Bowman Dam in Rye, New York. The access allowed the actor to obtain information regarding the status and operation of the dam. [2]
• February 2014 – Sands Las Vegas Corporation Hacked: Cyber threat actors hacked into the Sands Las Vegas Corporation in Las Vegas, Nevada, and stole customer data, including credit card data, Social Security Numbers, and driver’s license numbers. According to a Bloomberg article from December 2014, the attack also involved a destructive portion, in which the Sands Las Vegas Corporation’s computer systems were wiped. In September 2015, the U.S. Director of National Intelligence identified the Iranian government as the perpetrator of the attack in a Statement for the Record to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. [3]
• 2013 to 2017 – Cyber Theft Campaign on Behalf of IRGC: In response, in March 2018, the U.S. Justice Department indicted nine Iranian actors associated with the Mabna Institute for conducting a massive cyber theft campaign containing dozens of individual incidents, including “many on behalf of the IRGC.” The thefts targeted academic and intellectual property data as well as email account credentials. According to the indictment, the campaign targeted “144 U.S. universities, 176 universities across 21 foreign countries, 47 domestic and foreign private sector companies, the U.S. Department of Labor, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the State of Hawaii, the State of Indiana, the United Nations, and the United Nations Children’s Fund.” [4]

Mitigations

Recommended Actions

The following is a composite of actionable technical recommendations for IT professionals and providers to reduce their overall vulnerability. These recommendations are not exhaustive; rather they focus on the actions that will likely have the highest return on investment. In general, CISA recommends two courses of action in the face of potential threat from Iranian actors: 1) vulnerability mitigation and 2) incident preparation.

1. Disable all unnecessary ports and protocols. Review network security device logs and determine whether to shut off unnecessary ports and protocols. Monitor common ports and protocols for command and control activity.
2. Enhance monitoring of network and email traffic. Review network signatures and indicators for focused operations activities, monitor for new phishing themes and adjust email rules accordingly, and follow best practices of restricting attachments via email or other mechanisms.  
3. Patch externally facing equipment. Focus on patching critical and high vulnerabilities that allow for remote code execution or denial of service on externally facing equipment.
4. Log and limit usage of PowerShell. Limit the usage of PowerShell to only users and accounts that need it, enable code signing of PowerShell scripts, and enable logging of all PowerShell commands.
5. Ensure backups are up to date and stored in an easily retrievable location that is air-gapped from the organizational network.

Patterns of Publicly Known Iranian Advanced Persistent Threats

The following mitigations and detection recommendations regarding publicly known Iranian advanced persistent threat (APT) techniques are based on the MITRE ATT&CK Framework. [5]

Iranian APT Technique	Mitigation and Detection
Credential Dumping	Mitigation Manage the access control list for "Replicating Directory Changes" and other permissions associated with domain controller replication. Consider disabling or restricting NTLM. Ensure that local administrator accounts have complex, unique passwords across all systems on the network. Limit credential overlap across accounts and systems by training users and administrators not to use the same password for multiple accounts. Detection Windows: Monitor for unexpected processes interacting with Isass.exe. Linux: The AuditD monitoring tool can be used to watch for hostile processes opening a maps file in the proc file system, alerting on the pid, process name, and arguments for such programs.
Obfuscated Files or Information	Mitigation Consider utilizing the Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI) on Windows 10 to analyze commands after being processed/interpreted. Detection Windows: Monitor for unexpected processes interacting with Isass.exe. Linux: The AuditD monitoring tool can be used to watch for hostile processes opening a maps file in the proc file system, alerting on the pid, process name, and arguments for such programs.
Data Compressed	Mitigation Network intrusion prevention or data loss prevention tools may be set to block specific file types from leaving the network over unencrypted channels. Detection Process monitoring and monitoring for command-line arguments for known compression utilities. If the communications channel is unencrypted, compressed files can be detected in transit during exfiltration with a network intrusion detection or data loss prevention system analyzing file headers.
PowerShell	Mitigation Set PowerShell execution policy to execute only signed scripts. Remove PowerShell from systems when not needed, but a review should be performed to assess the impact to an environment, since it could be in use for many legitimate purposes and administrative functions. Disable/restrict the WinRM Service to help prevent uses of PowerShell for remote execution. Restrict PowerShell execution policy to administrators. Detection If PowerShell is not used in an environment, looking for PowerShell execution may detect malicious activity. Monitor for loading and/or execution of artifacts associated with PowerShell specific assemblies, such as System. Management.Automation.dll (especially to unusual process names/locations). Turn on PowerShell logging to gain increased fidelity in what occurs during execution (which is applied to .NET invocations).
User Execution	Mitigation Application whitelisting may be able to prevent the running of executables masquerading as other files. If a link is being visited by a user, network intrusion prevention systems and systems designed to scan and remove malicious downloads can be used to block activity. Block unknown or unused files in transit by default that should not be downloaded or by policy from suspicious sites as a best practice to prevent some vectors, such as .scr., .exe, .pif, .cpl, etc. Use user training as a way to bring awareness to common phishing and spearphishing techniques and how to raise suspicion for potentially malicious events. Detection Monitor the execution of and command-line arguments for applications that may be used by an adversary to gain Initial Access that require user interaction. This includes compression applications, such as those for zip files that can be used to Deobfuscate/Decode Files or Information in payloads. Anti-virus can potentially detect malicious documents and files that are downloaded and executed on the user's computer. Endpoint sensing or network sensing can potentially detect malicious events once the file is opened (such as a Microsoft Word document or PDF reaching out to the internet or spawning Powershell.exe) for techniques such as Exploitation for Client Execution and Scripting.
Scripting	Mitigation Configure Office security settings enable Protected View, to execute within a sandbox environment, and to block macros through Group Policy. Other types of virtualization and application microsegmentation may also mitigate the impact of compromise. Turn off unused features or restrict access to scripting engines such as VBScript or scriptable administration frameworks such as PowerShell. Detection Examine scripting user restrictions. Evaluate any attempts to enable scripts running on a system that would be considered suspicious. Scripts should be captured from the file system when possible to determine their actions and intent. Monitor processes and command-line arguments for script execution and subsequent behavior. Analyze Office file attachments for potentially malicious macros. Office processes, such as winword.exe, spawning instances of cmd.exe, script application like wscript.exe or powershell.exe, or other suspicious processes may indicate malicious activity.
Registry Run Keys/Startup Folder	Mitigation This type of attack technique cannot be easily mitigated with preventive controls since it is based on the abuse of system features. Detection Monitor Registry for changes to run keys that do not correlate with known software, patch cycles, etc. Monitor the start folder for additions or changes. Tools such as Sysinternals Autoruns may also be used to detect system changes that could be attempts at persistence, including listing the run keys' Registry locations and startup folders. To increase confidence of malicious activity, data and events should not be viewed in isolation, but as part of a chain of behavior that could lead to other activities, such as network connections made for Command and Control, learning details about the environment through Discovery, and Lateral Movement.
Remote File Copy	Mitigation Network intrusion detection and prevention systems that use network signatures to identify traffic for specific adversary malware or unusual data transfer over known tools and protocols like FTP can be used to mitigate activity at the network level. Detection Monitor for file creation and files transferred within a network over SMB. Monitor use of utilities, such as FTP, that does not normally occur. Analyze network data for uncommon data flows (e.g., a client sending significantly more data than it receives from a server). Analyze packet contents to detect communications that do not follow the expected protocol behavior for the port that is being used.
Spearphishing Link	Mitigation Determine if certain websites that can be used for spearphishing are necessary for business operations and consider blocking access if activity cannot be monitored well or if it poses a significant risk. Users can be trained to identify social engineering techniques and spearphishing emails with malicious links. Detection URL inspection within email (including expanding shortened links) can help detect links leading to known malicious sites. Detonation chambers can be used to detect these links and either automatically go to these sites to determine if they're potentially malicious, or wait and capture the content if a user visits the link.
Spearphishing Attachment	Mitigation Anti-virus can automatically quarantine suspicious files. Network intrusion prevention systems and systems designed to scan and remove malicious email attachments can be used to block activity. Block unknown or unused attachments by default that should not be transmitted over email as a best practice to prevent some vectors, such as .scr, .exe, .pif, .cpl, etc. Some email scanning devices can open and analyze compressed and encrypted formats, such as zip and rar that may be used to conceal malicious attachments in Obfuscated Files or Information. Users can be trained to identify social engineering techniques and spearphishing emails. Detection Network intrusion detection systems and email gateways can be used to detect spearphishing with malicious attachments in transit. Detonation chambers may also be used to identify malicious attachments. Solutions can be signature and behavior based, but adversaries may construct attachments in a way to avoid these systems. Anti-virus can potentially detect malicious documents and attachments as they're scanned to be stored on the email server or on the user's computer.

References

[1] Department of Justice press release: Seven Iranians Working for Islamic Rev…

[2] Department of Justice press release: Seven Iranians Working for Islamic Rev…

[3] Bloomberg article: Now at the Sands Casino: An Iranian Hacker in Every Serv…

[4] Department of Justice press release: Nine Iranians Charged With Conducting …

[5] MITRE ATT&CK Framework

CISA Insights: Increased Geopolitical Tensions and Threats

Contact Information

CISA encourages recipients of this report to contribute any additional information that they may have related to this threat. For any questions related to this report, please contact CISA at

• 1-888-282-0870 (From outside the United States: +1-703-235-8832)
• CISAServiceDesk@cisa.dhs.gov (UNCLASS)
• us-cert@dhs.sgov.gov (SIPRNET)
• us-cert@dhs.ic.gov (JWICS)

CISA encourages you to report any suspicious activity, including cybersecurity incidents, possible malicious code, software vulnerabilities, and phishing-related scams. Reporting forms can be found on the CISA homepage at http://www.us-cert.gov/.

Revisions

• January 6, 2019: Initial version

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The rise of the robots

Did you know:

In logistics, robots can pay for themselves within three to nine months, and with lower purchase prices, easier-to-configure robots and greater capabilities of robots that can find their way around a building, even small- and mid-size companies can now more easily deploy robots and gain a fast return.

As pointed out in Material Handling & Logistics, there are many types of robots available to help with distribution center/fulfillment center operation tasks today. They can assist with loading, unloading, sorting, picking, transportation, storage, delivery and audits. They also use different forms of navigation tools such as rail, wire-guided, labels, magnet tape, laser, vision, geo-guidance and others.

Two areas deserve special attention:

Picking. The trend away from case or bulk movement handling toward single SKUs has been accelerated due to e-commerce. These types of goods-to-person systems have taken the form of forward pick, racked systems that use robotic vehicles to bring cases and totes of goods to stations and then return the item container back into storage. There is also an increasing use of robotic machines to perform the pick process to detect, reach out, grasp and place into a receptacle items to fulfill an order.

Sortation. There have not been that many applications of robots doing item sortation in the U.S. Up until now, AGVs (automated guided vehicles) have been used for case, pallet, bulk, or specialized container movement for many years across a wide range of industries and applications. However, there are now examples of AGVs that automatically read barcodes and then deliver items in a single pass to a designated order consolidation point.

These two areas are a focal point by companies to increase productivity and decrease labor expenses. An example is the retail giant Walmart that recently introduced robotic cleaners. The robots do a programmed set of routines and clean a store thus allowing for Walmart to save on labor by eliminating part of their cleaning crew expense!

Will there be more robots in retail or industry? You can bet on it as companies try to cut expenses and increase delivery times so as to keep that potential customer from going elsewhere!

More to come!

Joe Rossini

Are we heading toward a recession and if yes what should we do?

I believe that all the tariffs  that have been imposed could not just be blown off by the economy or companies. Companies in some cases have raised prices and we see it in the grocery store or when we go shopping for items at brick and mortar stores or even on Amazon. Ultimately the consumer opts for cheaper goods if they can fin them or opts not to buy at all! It is those small blips we are starting to see that are showing that things might just be slowing. So the question is, what can we do?

First if you have a website that has not been updated for a while, think about making it more in line with what you are doing.  Make sure that people can find what you have to offer and allow them to either buy on line or make it easier for them to contact you. I can not tell you how many times I have gone to a website, wanted to buy or at least talk to someone and it was almost impossible to get that number to call. Guess what?  Lost sale, I moved on and so will others!

Another tip is to have a reporting structure that tells you when a potential customer is on your site looking.  In this day and age, time is important, hit that lead when it is hot and don't let go. Reporting can be had a very low prices and some for free so get it and use it.

Have you ever thought about telling the world about your successes and also about new products? If you have a new product that gives you an edge, let the world know. Do PR releases, do e-mail newsletters, make tele calls and more. Potential customers must sometimes be told, do not expect them to just run to  you they have to be given a reason.

OK much more to come, this is just the start but remember, you  are the only one that can talk about  you, so do it and do it often.

More to come soon.

Joe Rossini

cyber security

Why is the Manufacturing Sector at Risk?

Traditionally, the finance sector has been the biggest target for cybercriminals with the intention of stealing money or valuable customer data. In some ways, this focus has caused executives in the manufacturing sector to disregard the threat with the assumption that they are an unlikely target.

However, manufacturing is at risk of cyberattack due to:

• a lack of investment in cybersecurity, particularly when compared with the finance sector where security is prioritized.
• primary targets such as banks and tech companies’ increased investment in security mean manufacturing and other sectors are now considered easier targets and “low-hanging fruit.”
• manufacturing companies becoming collateral damage when they are unintentionally caught up in ransomware attacks such as Wannacry and NotPetya.
• increasing use of IoT devices that often have poor security (such as default passwords) and can provide a foot in the door for cybercriminals.
• manufacturing companies warehousing data that is of interest to cybercriminals.
• lack of cybersecurity safety awareness and adequate staff training.
• vulnerabilities throughout the supply chain wherever suppliers have remote access to systems.

How Manufacturers Can Improve Cybersecurity

While the manufacturing sector is unlikely to match cybersecurity spending seen at banks and tech companies, here are some steps that should be taken to attain a working level of security:

• Have a data plan that identifies critical areas vulnerable to cyberattacks and puts appropriate security measures in place.
• Map your attack surface across all manufacturing plants and down the supply chain.
• Ensure all operational technology, products, and services integrated into manufacturing processes have an acceptable level of security.
• Investigate the security compliance of acquired companies before incorporating their systems into your network.
• Prioritize the updating and patching of outdated operating systems, even if this means expensive downtime for your manufacturing operation.
• Utilize a managed security service to monitor and defend your networks.

How to Ensure Your Staff is Cybersecure

Tech Republic’s Michael Kassner writes that companies, including manufacturers, “prefer not to consider the threat from employees – current and former.” Crimes committed within a company can be difficult to prosecute, but can be defended against through the implementation of segmented networks that “section off the most valuable data, making it accessible to only a few trusted individuals.”

Manufacturers should perform regular insider threat detection and prevention audits, and educate employees about the risk of using personal devices and best-practice cybersecurity.

Similarly, manufacturers should have a clear security policy that is communicated to vendors and suppliers up and down the supply chain to ensure cybersecurity is enforced wherever an organization has access to the manufacturer’s systems.

Image Credit: Gorodenkoff / Shutterstock

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Reconnecting with Nature's R&D: How Biomimicry is

Here they come again..robots

They are coming in different form one is at a burger place near you!

After announcing its latest acquisition, it’s clear that the McDonald's restaurant franchise has a plan in place – and it probably involves hiring more engineers and fewer drive-thru attendants.

The Golden Arches has taken a company called Apprente into the fold, and it’s a startup that specializes in artificial intelligence tech that can understand voice – in this case, orders being relayed in different languages and accents.

McDonald's has reportedly been testing the Apprente technology at select locations and promises that it will allow for "faster, simpler, and more accurate order taking" via the drive-thru.

But the team at Apprente will do more than just integrate a solution. They will form the founding members of a new Silicon Valley group McDonald’s will use to build out its tech capabilities. It’s being called McD Tech Labs, and it will support what McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook calls the company’s “culture of innovation.” The company is reportedly expanding the Lab’s team by hiring additional engineers and data scientists.

There’s one thing for certain: if McDonald’s can get the AI drive-thru to function in a way that still attracts customers, it will likely embolden the fast-food giant to invest more and more in tech and, as a result, cut the size of its human workforce.

And it’s not exactly trying to hide that strategy. In 2017, McDonald’s unveiled what it’s calling the “Velocity Growth Plan,” and it focuses on encouraging customers to use kiosks and mobile apps for their own convenience. The plan is for every U.S. McDonald’s location to be equipped with kiosks by 2020, and this latest acquisition may even help them be more effective.

Not to mention, McDonald’s has made a few other tech acquisitions over the past year, including a company called Dynamic Yield which can offer drive-thru menus that customize the user’s view based on things like time-of-day or trending menu items.

More to come soon!

Source Thomas Industry

Interesting article

I found this article interesting:

When you find yourself in a place of self-reflection, it’s easy to declare to make a change. It’s the follow-through that’s hard, and it’s no different for businesses who are making their own strategic shifts.

Recently, a group of executives representing major corporations announced that it would be modifying its objective. The Business Roundtable group includes CEOs from companies like Amazon, Chevron, GM, Lockheed Martin, American Express… you get it. And for years, they’ve worked under a mantle where the role of the corporation was to increase shareholder value.

That is, until recently, when the group’s chairman Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, announced the group’s mantra was changing, something he backed up with a revised statement the group is calling a “shared understanding” – to not just generate long-term value for shareholders, but also to deliver value to customers, invest in employees, deal ethically and fairly with suppliers and to support their communities by protecting the environment through sustainable business practices.

And while the reaction to this revision was generally positive, there were also many business and labor experts who brushed it off as the Business Roundtable’s way of paying lip service to prevailing expectations of corporate responsibility – especially since the group “in the past has fought anti-trust legislation, backed favorable tax cuts, and successfully lobbied to dilute restrictions on executive compensation.”

But there’s another business group out there that’s determined to hold the Business Roundtable accountable, and they’re not doing so quietly. Business Insider has reported that the group B Lab recently took out a full-page ad in the New York Times with a message for the Business Roundtable companies: “Let’s Get to Work.”

B Lab is a group that offers businesses “B Corporation” status, a designation that incorporates how a company’s business model impacts “workers, community, environment, and customers.” 3,000 companies have been awarded the private certification, including Ben & Jerry’s and Patagonia, and the full-page ad seems intended to spur the Business Roundtable group to take action and “walk the walk,” saying “Let’s get to work to make real change happen.”

Whether or not these companies commit to real, tangible change remains to be seen, but one thing is for certain now – the world is watching.

Credit: Thomas Industry Update

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