It can be difficult for security teams to continuously monitor all on-premises servers due to budget and resource constraints. Signature-based antivirus alone is insufficient as modern malware uses various obfuscation techniques. Server admins may lack visibility into security events across all servers historically. Determining compromised systems and safe backups to restore from during incidents is challenging without centralized monitoring and alerting. It is onerous for server admins to setup and maintain additional security tools for advanced threat detection. The rapid mean time to detect and remediate infections is critical but difficult to achieve without the right automated solution.
Determining which backup image is safe to restore from during incidents without comprehensive threat intelligence is another hard problem. Even if backups are available, without knowing when exactly a system got compromised, it is risky to blindly restore from backups. This increases the chance of restoring malware and losing even more valuable data and systems during incident response. There is a need for an automated solution that can pinpoint the timeline of infiltration and recommend safe backups for restoration.
The solution leverages AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery (AWS DRS), Amazon GuardDuty and AWS Security Hub to address the challenges of malware detection for on-premises servers.
This combo of services provides a cost-effective way to continuously monitor on-premises servers for malware without impacting performance. It also helps determine safe recovery point in time backups for restoration by identifying timeline of compromises through centralized threat analytics.
AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery (AWS DRS) minimizes downtime and data loss with fast, reliable recovery of on-premises and cloud-based applications using affordable storage, minimal compute, and point-in-time recovery.
Amazon GuardDuty is a threat detection service that continuously monitors your AWS accounts and workloads for malicious activity and delivers detailed security findings for visibility and remediation.
AWS Security Hub is a cloud security posture management (CSPM) service that performs security best practice checks, aggregates alerts, and enables automated remediation.
The Malware Scan solution assumes on-premises servers are already being replicated with AWS DRS, and Amazon GuardDuty & AWS Security Hub are enabled. The cdk stack in this repository will only deploy the boxes labelled as DRS Malware Scan in the architecture diagram.
Amazon Security Hub enabled. If not, please check this documentation
Warning
Currently, Amazon GuardDuty Malware scan does not support EBS volumes encrypted with EBS-managed keys. If you want to use this solution to scan your on-prem (or other-cloud) servers replicated with DRS, you need to setup DRS replication with your own encryption key in KMS. If you are currently using EBS-managed keys with your replicating servers, you can change encryption settings to use your own KMS key in the DRS console.
Create a Cloud9 environment with Ubuntu image (at least t3.small for better performance) in your AWS account. Open your Cloud9 environment and clone the code in this repository. Note: Amazon Linux 2 has node v16 which is not longer supported since 2023-09-11 git clone https://github.com/aws-samples/drs-malware-scan
cd drs-malware-scan
sh check_loggroup.sh
Deploy the CDK stack by running the following command in the Cloud9 terminal and confirm the deployment
npm install
cdk bootstrap
cdk deploy --all
Note
The solution is made of 2 stacks: * DrsMalwareScanStack: it deploys all resources needed for malware scanning feature. This stack is mandatory. If you want to deploy only this stack you can run cdk deploy DrsMalwareScanStack
* ScanReportStack: it deploys the resources needed for reporting (Amazon Lambda and Amazon S3). This stack is optional. If you want to deploy only this stack you can run cdk deploy ScanReportStack
If you want to deploy both stacks you can run cdk deploy --all
All lambda functions route logs to Amazon CloudWatch. You can verify the execution of each function by inspecting the proper CloudWatch log groups for each function, look for the /aws/lambda/DrsMalwareScanStack-*
pattern.
The duration of the malware scan operation will depend on the number of servers/volumes to scan (and their size). When Amazon GuardDuty finds malware, it generates a SecurityHub finding: the solution intercepts this event and runs the $StackName-SecurityHubAnnotations
lambda to augment the SecurityHub finding with a note containing the name(s) of the DRS source server(s) with malware.
The SQS FIFO queues can be monitored using the Messages available and Message in flight metrics from the AWS SQS console
The DRS Volume Annotations DynamoDB tables keeps track of the status of each Malware scan operation.
Amazon GuardDuty has documented reasons to skip scan operations. For further information please check Reasons for skipping resource during malware scan
In order to analize logs from Amazon GuardDuty Malware scan operations, you can check /aws/guardduty/malware-scan-events
Amazon Cloudwatch LogGroup. The default log retention period for this log group is 90 days, after which the log events are deleted automatically.
Run the following commands in your terminal:
cdk destroy --all
(Optional) Delete the CloudWatch log groups associated with Lambda Functions.
For the purpose of this analysis, we have assumed a fictitious scenario to take as an example. The following cost estimates are based on services located in the North Virginia (us-east-1) region.
Monthly Cost | Total Cost for 12 Months |
---|---|
171.22 USD | 2,054.74 USD |
Service Name | Description | Monthly Cost (USD) |
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AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery | 2 Source Servers / 1 Replication Server / 4 disks / 100GB / 30 days of EBS Snapshot Retention Period | 71.41 |
Amazon GuardDuty | 3 TB Malware Scanned/Month | 94.56 |
Amazon DynamoDB | 100MB 1 Read/Second 1 Writes/Second | 3.65 |
AWS Security Hub | 1 Account / 100 Security Checks / 1000 Finding Ingested | 0.10 |
AWS EventBridge | 1M custom events | 1.00 |
Amazon Cloudwatch | 1GB ingested/month | 0.50 |
AWS Lambda | 5 ARM Lambda Functions - 128MB / 10secs | 0.00 |
Amazon SQS | 2 SQS Fifo | 0.00 |
Total | 171.22 |
Note The figures presented here are estimates based on the assumptions described above, derived from the AWS Pricing Calculator. For further details please check this pricing calculator as a reference. You can adjust the services configuration in the referenced calculator to make your own estimation. This estimation does not include potential taxes or additional charges that might be applicable. It's crucial to remember that actual fees can vary based on usage and any additional services not covered in this analysis. For critical environments is advisable to include Business Support Plan (not considered in the estimation)
See CONTRIBUTING for more information.
You consider yourself a responsible person when it comes to taking care of your physical possessions. You’ve never left your wallet in a taxi or lost an expensive ring down the drain. You never let your smartphone out of your sight, yet one day you notice it’s acting oddly.
Did you know that your device can fall into cybercriminals’ hands without ever leaving yours? SIM swapping is a method that allows criminals to take control of your smartphone and break into your online accounts.
Don’t worry: there are a few easy steps you can take to safeguard your smartphone from prying eyes and get back to using your devices confidently.
First off, what exactly is a SIM card? SIM stands for subscriber identity module, and it is a memory chip that makes your phone truly yours. It stores your phone plan and phone number, as well as all your photos, texts, contacts, and apps. In most cases, you can pop your SIM card out of an old phone and into a new one to transfer your photos, apps, etc.
Unlike what the name suggests, SIM swapping doesn’t require a cybercriminal to get access to your physical phone and steal your SIM card. SIM swapping can happen remotely. A hacker, with a few important details about your life in hand, can answer security questions correctly, impersonate you, and convince your mobile carrier to reassign your phone number to a new SIM card. At that point, the criminal can get access to your phone’s data and start changing your account passwords to lock you out of your online banking profile, email, and more.
SIM swapping was especially relevant right after the AT&T data leak. Cybercriminals stole millions of phone numbers and the users’ associated personal details. They could later use these details to SIM swap, allowing them to receive users’ text or email two-factor authentication codes and gain access to their personal accounts.
The most glaring sign that your phone number was reassigned to a new SIM card is that your current phone no longer connects to the cell network. That means you won’t be able to make calls, send texts, or surf the internet when you’re not connected to Wi-Fi. Since most people use their smartphones every day, you’ll likely find out quickly that your phone isn’t functioning as it should.
Additionally, when a SIM card is no longer active, the carrier will often send a notification text. If you receive one of these texts but didn’t deactivate your SIM card, use someone else’s phone or landline to contact your wireless provider.
Check out these tips to keep your device and personal information safe from SIM swapping.
With just a few simple steps, you can feel better about the security of your smartphone, cellphone number, and online accounts. If you’d like extra peace of mind, consider signing up for an identity theft protection service like McAfee+. McAfee, on average, detects suspicious activity ten months earlier than similar monitoring services. Time is of the essence in cases of SIM swapping and other identity theft schemes. An identity protection partner can restore your confidence in your online activities.
The post How to Protect Your Smartphone from SIM Swapping appeared first on McAfee Blog.
For years now, the popularity of online dating has been on the rise—and so have the number of online romance scams that leave people with broken hearts and empty wallets.
In a recent CBS News story, one Texan woman was scammed out of $3,200 by a scammer claiming to be a German Cardiologist. After months of exchanging messages and claiming to be in love with her, he said that he’d been robbed while on a business trip in Nigeria and needed her help.
According to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the reported cost of online romance scams was $1.14 billion in 2023.
Dating and romance scams aren’t limited to online dating apps and sites, they’ll happen on social media and in online games as well. However, the FTC reports that the scam usually starts the same way, typically through an unexpected friend request or a message that comes out of the blue.
With the phony relationship established, the scammer starts asking for money. The FTC reports that they’ll ask for money for several bogus reasons, usually revolving around some sort of hardship where they need a “little help” so that they can pay:
The list goes on, yet that’s the general gist. Scammers often employ a story with an intriguing complication that seems just reasonable enough, one where the romance scammer makes it sound like they could really use the victim’s financial help.
People who have filed fraud reports say they’ve paid their scammer in a few typical ways.
One is by wiring money, often through a wire transfer company. The benefit of this route, for the scammer anyway, is that this is as good as forking over cash. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. The victim lacks the protections they have with other payment forms, such as a credit card that allows the holder to cancel or contest a charge.
Another way is through gift cards. Scammers of all stripes, not just romance scammers, like these because they effectively work like cash, whether it’s a gift card for a major online retailer or a chain of brick-and-mortar stores. Like a wire transfer, once that gift card is handed over, the money on it is highly difficult to recover, if at all.
One more common payment is through reloadable debit cards. A scammer may make an initial request for such a card and then make several follow-on requests to load it up again.
In all, a romance scammer will typically look for the easiest payment method that’s the most difficult to contest or reimburse, leaving the victim in a financial lurch once the scam ends.
When it comes to meeting new people online, the FTC suggests the following:
Scammers, although arguably heartless, are still human. They make mistakes. The stories they concoct are just that. Stories. They may jumble their details, get their times and dates all wrong, or simply get caught in an apparent lie. Also, keep in mind that some scammers may be working with several victims at once, which is yet another opportunity for them to get confused and slip up.
As mentioned above, some romance scammers troll social media and reach out through direct messages or friend requests. With that, there are three things you can do to cut down your chances of getting caught up with a scammer:
Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and others give you the option of making your profile and posts visible to friends only. Choosing this setting keeps the broader internet from seeing what you’re doing, saying, and posting, which can help protect your privacy and give a romance scammer less information to exploit.
Be critical of the invitations you receive. Out-and-out strangers could be more than a romance scammer, they could be a fake account designed to gather information on users for purposes of cybercrime, or they can be an account designed to spread false information. There are plenty of them too. In fact, in Q4 of 2023 alone, Facebook took action on 693 million fake accounts. Reject such requests.
Online protection software like ours can help you spot fakes and scams. Features like Text Scam Detector use advanced AI to detect scam links in texts, email, and social media messages before you click. Our Personal Data Cleanup can keep you safer still by removing your personal info from sketchy data broker sites — places where scammers go to harvest useful info on their victims. And if the unfortunate happens, we offer $2 million in identity theft coverage and identity restoration support.
If you suspect that you’re being scammed, put an end to the relationship and report it, as difficult as that may feel.
Notify the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov for support and next steps to help you recover financially as much as possible. Likewise, notify the social media site, app, or service where the scam occurred as well. In some cases, you may want to file a police report, which we cover in our broader article on identity theft and fraud.
If you sent funds via a gift card, the FTC suggests filing a claim with the company as soon as possible. They offer further advice on filing a claim here, along with a list of contact numbers for gift card brands that scammers commonly use.
Lastly, go easy on yourself. If you find yourself a victim of online dating or romance fraud, know that you won’t be the first or last person to be taken advantage of this way. By reporting your case, you in fact may help others from falling victim too.
The post How to Spot Dating Scams appeared first on McAfee Blog.
EDRaser is a powerful tool for remotely deleting access logs, Windows event logs, databases, and other files on remote machines. It offers two modes of operation: automated and manual.
In automated mode, EDRaser scans the C class of a given address space of IPs for vulnerable systems and attacks them automatically. The attacks in auto mode are:
To use EDRaser in automated mode, follow these steps:
python edraser.py --auto
In manual mode, you can select specific attacks to launch against a targeted system, giving you greater control. Note that some attacks, such as VMX deletion, are for local machine only.
To use EDRaser in manual mode, you can use the following syntax:
python edraser.py --ip <ip_addr> --attack <attack_name> [--sigfile <signature file>]
Arguments:
--ip
: scan IP addresses in the specified range and attack vulnerable systems (default: localhost).--sigfile
: use the specified encrypted signature DB (default: signatures.db).--attack
: attack to be executed. The following attacks are available: ['vmx', 'vmdk', 'windows_security_event_log_remote', 'windows_application_event_log_local', 'syslog', 'access_logs', 'remote_db', 'local_db', 'remote_db_webserver']Optional arguments:
port
: port of remote machinedb_username
: the username of the remote DB.db_password
: the password of the remote DB.db_type
: type of the DB, EDRaser supports mysql
, sqlite
. (# Note that for sqlite, no username\password is needed)db_name
: the name of remote DB to be connected totable_name
: the name of remote table to be connected torpc_tools
: path to the VMware rpc_toolsExample:
python edraser.py --attack windows_event_log --ip 192.168.1.133
python EDRaser.py -attack remote_db -db_type mysql -db_username test_user -db_password test_password -ip 192.168.1.10
You can bring up a web interface for inserting and viewing a remote DB. it can be done by the following command: EDRaser.py -attack remote_db_webserver -db_type mysql -db_username test_user -db_password test_password -ip 192.168.1.10
This will bring up a web server on the localhost:8080 address, it will allow you to view & insert data to a remote given DB. This feature is designed to give an example of a "Real world" scenario where you have a website that you enter data into it and it keeps in inside a remote DB, You can use this feature to manually insert data into a remote DB.
In manual mode, EDRaser displays a list of available attacks. Here's a brief description of each attack:
Read this statement, then read it again: Just five distracted seconds at 55 mph is equivalent to driving the length of a football field with your eyes closed. This alarming truth from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), highlights the need for parents to address the issue of distracted driving with their teens.
Additional distracted driving statistics are mind-blowing. According to the NHSTA, 77 percent of drivers admitted to using their phones while driving, 74 percent used their map app, 56 percent read emails or texts, 27 percent updated or checked their social media accounts, and shockingly, 19 percent of drivers—equivalent to one in five—engaged in online shopping while driving.
In the United States, distracted driving has become a leading cause of fatal crashes, accounting for 25 to 30 percent of all fatal crashes. Furthermore, overall highway fatalities have increased by 22 percent, as reported recently by The Los Angeles Times, which attributed this rise to the allure of technology turning our cars into “candy stores of distraction.”
While technology plays a significant role in distracted driving, other everyday choices and factors can also contribute to accidents. Eating while driving, managing a lively pet in the car, navigating unfamiliar streets, and even talking with peer passengers can distract young drivers. Studies have shown that crash risk doubles when teens drive with one peer passenger and quadruples with three or more teen passengers.
In the throes of summer, it’s a great time for parents to have a conversation with their teen drivers about the dangers of distracted driving and texting while driving. Here are some important topics to discuss and tips to help keep your kids safe on the road:
Remember, developing good (or better) habits takes time, effort, consistency, and parental involvement in teen driving. Preventing distracted driving with positive behavior change won’t happen overnight. Repeat yourself when it comes to road safety without apologies. Giving your child rules and expectations demonstrates love. By making some of these shifts, hopefully, you will worry less, raise wiser drivers, and improve safety for everyone on the roads.
The post Parent’s Guide: 8 Ways to Help Your Teen Combat Distracted Driving appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Welcome to the new normal. We’re all now living in a post-COVID-19 world characterized by uncertainty, mass home working and remote learning. The lines demarcating normal life have shifted abruptly – perhaps never to return. That’s not the worst that can happen, as we all know, but it does mean we all need to get used to new ways of living, working and studying from home. This has major implications for the online safety, security and privacy of our families.
To help you adapt to these new conditions while protecting what matters most, Trend Micro has developed a two-part blog series on “The New Normal.” Part 1 identifies the scope and specific cyber-threats of the new normal. Part 2 provides security tips and products to help address those threats.
In April, nearly 300 million Americans were estimated to be in government-mandated lockdown. Even as some businesses, municipalities and states begin to relax these rules, experts have warned of subsequent waves of the virus, which could result in new localized lockdowns. In short, a lot of people will continue to work from home, while their children, also at home, attempt to study remotely from their mobile devices.
This has considerable implications for how we spend our time. Without that morning commute to work or school, more of it than ever will involve sitting in front of a desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone screen. Even the smart TV is enlisted. Dangers include
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Unfortunately, the increase in working from home (WFH), especially for those not used to it, may lead to an increase in risky behavior, such as: using non-approved apps for work; visiting non work-related sites on work devices; and using personal devices to access work resources. Recent global Trend Micro research found that:
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This is not about restricting your freedom to visit the sites you want to visit while at home. It’s about reducing the risk of exposing corporate data and systems to possible malware.
Unsurprisingly, there has also been a major uptick in the volume of cyber-threats targeting home users. With a captive audience to aim at, it’s a huge opportunity for cyber-criminals to steal your log-ins and personal data to sell to fraudsters, or even to steal corporate passwords and information for a potentially bigger pay-off. They are helped by the fact that many home workers may be more distracted than they usually would be at the office, especially if they have young children. Your kids may even share the same laptops or PCs as you, potentially visiting risky sites and/or downloading unapproved apps.
There’s also a chance that, unless you have a corporate machine at home, your personal computing equipment is less secure than the kit you had in the office. Add to that the fact that support from the IT department may be less forthcoming than usual, given that stretched teams are overwhelmed with requests, while themselves struggling to WFH. One recent report claimed that nearly half (47%) of IT security pros have been taken off some or all of their typical security tasks to support other IT-related jobs. In another, only 59% of respondents said they believe their cybersecurity team has the right tools and resources at home to perform their job effectively.
It’s time to step up and take security into your own hands. Stay on the lookout for the following threats.
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So what’s a remote worker/concerned parent to do to protect themselves and the family in the midst of the “new normal?”
Read Part 2 in this mini-series, which we’re publishing simultaneously with Part 1, where we share some best practice advice on how to keep your digital lives and work systems safe from online threats during lockdown—and where we provide tools to help you do just that.
The post Top Tips For Home Cybersecurity And Privacy In A Coronavirus-Impacted World (Part 1) appeared first on .
The past few months have seen radical changes to our work and home life under the Coronavirus threat, upending norms and confining millions of American families within just four walls. In this context, it’s not surprising that more of us are spending an increasing portion of our lives online. But this brings with it some familiar cyber-risks. In Part 1 of this mini-series, we explained how cyber-criminals are looking to capitalize on these sweeping changes to society to further their own ends.
Now let’s take a look at what you can do to protect your family, your data, and access to your corporate accounts.
The bad guys are laser-focused on stealing your personal data and log-ins and increasingly see the remote worker as an easy target for leapfrogging into corporate networks. That’s not to mention the potential internet safety risks inherent in bored kids spending more time in front of their screens. To respond, you’ll need to create an equally focused “home security plan” governed by sensible policies and best practices. Here are some of the key areas to consider.
Protect your smart home and router
Increasingly, unprotected smart home devices are being targeted by cyber-criminals to turn into botnets to attack others. They might also provide sophisticated attackers with a stepping-stone into your corporate systems, via the home network. The home router, with its known flaws, is (after the modem) the digital front door to the smart home and the basis for your networking, so it should be first in any security strategy. Consider the following when tackling home network security:
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Secure your home office
Cyber-criminals are primed to take advantage of distracted home workers and potentially less secure PCs/devices. Secure this environment by doing the following:
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Stay safe from phishing
Phishing is the number one tactic used by attackers to trick you into installing malware or handing over your log-ins. Emails, text messages, social media messages and more are spoofed to appear as if sent by a legitimate company or contact. In response:
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Use video conferencing safely
New videoconferencing platforms can introduce risk, especially if you’re not familiar with the default settings. Here’s how to stay safe when video conferencing:
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Stay safe shopping and banking
Next, protect your financial information and stay safe from e-commerce fraud by doing the following:
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Think about online safety for kids
They may be under your roof for more hours of the day than usual, but your children are also likely to be spending more time online. That means you need to have a measured conversation with them about internet safety, backed up with parental controls. Consider the following:
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Mobile security best practices
Finally, sheltering at home has limits, particularly for restless kids. When they go to the store or out to the park, facemasks notwithstanding, they’re likely going to use their mobile devices, just as they’ll continue to do at home. Of course, you’re not exempt either from mobile threats. Ensure mobile security by
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When it comes to protecting the home from security and privacy threats during lockdown, leave no stone unturned. Cyber-criminals will always look for the weak link in the chain and focus their efforts there. Network security is important, but it doesn’t replace the need for protection on each individual device. You’ll need to cover your router, network, smart devices, and all endpoints (PCs, laptops, mobiles and other devices). Here’s how Trend Micro can help:
Trend Micro Home Network Security
Trend Micro Home Network Security provides industry-leading protection against any threats to internet-connected devices in the home. The solution
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Trend Micro Security (PC and Mac)
Trend Micro Security, available in various editions (led by Trend Micro Maximum Security), is Trend’s flagship endpoint security product for consumers. Available for both PCs and Macs, it features AI learning to stop advanced threats. Among a wide range of protections, it includes:
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Trend Micro Mobile Security:
Trend Micro Mobile Security provides endpoint security for all your mobile devices, whether Android or iOS-based.
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Additional Trend Micro Tools:
Network and endpoint security should be supplemented with tools that accomplish specific tasks, such as protecting your internet connections, your passwords, and your identity data. Trend Micro provides
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Maintaining your family’s security and privacy on all their devices during the coronavirus lockdown above all means changing your mindset, to take into account the mix of work and play in the household during the “new normal.” Use these tips and tools during lockdown and you’ll be well on your way to ensuring you and your family’s safety from malicious viruses—both digital and natural.
The post Top Tips For Home Cybersecurity And Privacy In A Coronavirus-Impacted World (Part 2) appeared first on .