What is a CVE and why is it important for your security?

There are “good” hackers. They call themselves security analysts and some even devote their time to working for the common good. They investigate possible vulnerabilities in public and known applications, and when they find a possible security flaw that could endanger the users of those applications, they report that vulnerability to the software manufacturer. There is no reward, they are not paid for it, they do it to make the world safer.

What is a CVE?

This entire process, from the moment the manufacturer accepts the reported vulnerability until it is fixed, is taken to a public reference system called the CVE Database. This is a database maintained by MITRE Corporation (that’s why sometimes it is known as MITRE CVE list) with funds from the National Cyber Security Division of the government of the United States of America.

The CVE Program is an international effort, based on the community and it is based on it to discover vulnerabilities. Vulnerabilities are discovered, assigned and published in the CVE list.

Each CVE uniquely identifies a security problem. This problem can be of different types, but in any case, it is something that if it is not solved but rather stays hidden, someday someone will take advantage of said failure. A CVE simply describes which is the vulnerable application and the version and/or component affected without revealing sensitive information. When the error is corrected, it reports where the solution can be found. Generally a CVE is not made public until the mistake has been corrected, this is especially important, since it guarantees that the users of said application are not subjected to a gratuitous risk when publishing information about the failure. If there were no CVE, researchers would publish such information without coordinating with the manufacturers, producing unacceptable security risks for users who have no way to protect themselves against data that reveals security errors in their systems as users of those applications. Don’t forget that all software vendors have public CVEs published. Nobody is spared.

This consensus between manufacturers and researchers on the way to reveal sensitive information regarding security flaws of an application allows a continuous improvement of the security of public information systems. Although MITRE is originally a US funded organization, there are partner organizations around the world that help to organize CVEs regionally, decentralizing management and helping local manufacturers organize more efficiently.

INCIBE and ARTICA

CVEs are coordinated by CNAs, voluntary organizations that offer themselves to coordinate and resolve disputes when there are conflicting positions between security researchers and manufacturers. The root CNA is MITER, and there are CNAs spread all over the world. Most of the software and hardware manufacturers like Microsoft, CISCO, Oracle, VMware or Dell are CNAs that are part of the CVE program.

INCIBE, the National Cybersecurity Institute of Spain, is a Spanish organization that has recently become a CNA Root, a member with a special status within the CVE hierarchy, as it coordinates the Spanish CNAs. It is also a contact point in the country for receiving vulnerabilities discover n the IT domain, industrial systems and IoT (Internet of Things) devices.

Thanks to its collaboration with INCIBE, ÁRTICA the company behind Pandora FMS, Integria IMS and eHorus has become the official CNA of CVE. This is especially important as it shows Pandora FMS’s commitment to information system security and makes itself available to researchers from all over the world to work on solving any problem that may affect its users.

From this moment on, the program has two hundred one CNA from thirty two countries, ARTICA being number two hundred all over the world and third in Spain. After joining the program, ARTICA will be able to publicly receive any information related to the security of Pandora FMS, Integria IMS or eHorus and process the solution of the problem reliably as well as its public communication.
Our vulnerability management policy allows us to assure any Pandora FMS user that any problem will be dealt with rigorously, prioritizing the impact and mitigating risk in productive environments, while guaranteeing the researcher correct reception, communication and publication in the open of his/her work.

Vulnerability disclosure policy in Pandora FMS

At Pandora FMS, we have a very open policy in this regard. Pandora FMS was born with an open philosophy, this not only means open source, it also means free knowledge and, of course, process transparency. We have a fully public and transparent vulnerability disclosure policy. Over the years, different researchers have contacted us to report security problems in Pandora FMS. Yes, we too have had, and will have, security flaws. And thanks in part to the selfless work of security researchers, we have been correcting many of these flaws. We are so compliant and honest that we publish them ourselves in a list of known vulnerabilities on our own website.

Security bug reports generally have a life cycle that allows users to avoid the added risk of publishing information about software bugs ahead of time, before the manufacturer has been able to create a patch and distribute it in good time to its users. In this process, the security breach remains in a waiting stage, where the manufacturer accepts the reported problem and agrees on a date to solve the problem. The security researcher waits patiently and makes the solution of the problem as easy as possible: providing more information, collaborating with the development team, even doing some additional testing when the patch is available. The point is to work as a team to improve the robustness of the software.

The e-mail box security@pandorafms.com is open to anyone with an interest in improving the security of our software.

What’s new in the latest Pandora FMS release, Pandora FMS 758

Let’s check out together the features and improvements related to the new Pandora FMS release: Pandora FMS 758. Remember this is an LTS version, we only have two of them a year, in April and November and they are stable.

NEW FEATURES AND IMPROVEMENTS

Network Configuration Manager

We added for the first time in Pandora FMS a new network computer management system, which allows you to distribute configuration changes in a customized way to network computers, differentiating by model and provider. You may back up configurations and recover them or see the differences compared to the previous backup. In future versions you will be able to deploy mass changes to network computers, apply firmwares and more features.

Improvements in IPAM

Our improved IPAM includes network export/import, new options for working with subnets (sorting, adding networks to supernets from the first range available, etc.), as well as new tree views in supernet maps and network usage statistical graphs. New IPAM reports have also been added to see the list of used/unused IPs as well as those assigned to an agent.

Network usage statistical graphs

Supernet display in tree format

New service list widget

A new widget has been added, where you may choose to see the services view and choose what type of view you want to see.

New visual console element: Simple graphs

The visual console supports a new type of element that displays the graph in a simplified format, providing a label with the value of the last data collected in a very visual way, creating a new world of possibilities for creating dashboards.

New Alert server

The new Pandora FMS alert server allows parallelization of the alert execution load in another component, so that monitoring processing is not affected in alert storm situations. This new server is optional and it is not activated by default.

Open Source network maps

At the request of our user community, we opened the network map editor feature for the OpenSource version. It can now be used without limits in the community version.

IPv6 support for Satellite server

Since this version, both the Satellite server and the Enterprise Network Server support IPv6 in all its advanced features. High-performance code previously only supported on IPv4 now applies to IPv6 as well, enhancing existing polling capabilities.

New Enterprise plugin: Apache Spark

The Apache Spark plugin creates an agent for each app that has finished or is running on the server with the data of all its executors. More information in our library.

Do you already know what a data warehouse is?

We would love to say that companies, above all else, value their employees, but it would be as naive as it is false. Yes, because at the top of the companies’ scale of values is data. The precious data. Data that actually only plays an important role when properly stored. And here is where the data warehouses come in.

What exactly is a data warehouse?

A data warehouse is actually a way of managing your data, specially designed, of course, to support business activities, especially those related to analytics. Enterprise data warehouses contain, of course, vast amounts of historical data to collate, query, pattern or analyze. These data, which the warehouse centralizes, come from a wide and different range of sources. We have the type: application log files, transaction applications, etc.

Apart from centralizing data and unifying their sources, data warehouses help in the decision-making process. This is because they contain valuable raw business knowledge. A very rich historical record for analysts and data experts. And from them, from the experts, we have taken the main advantages of data warehouses:

• Source tracking and verification Thanks to data warehouses, we may trace the data to its source and verify both the information as well as the root it comes from. That way we will be able to store this source in our database and always ensure consistent and relevant information.
• Sifting relevant data for companies. Once in the system, the quality and integrity of the data is guaranteed. Companies will only have useful data, those necessary for their activities, since the data warehouse format predisposes the analysis of their information at any time and under any circumstance. No one should any longer depend on a hunch or rash from the decision-maker, incomplete or poor quality data. The results will be fast and accurate.
• In the data warehouse, the data is copied and processed, integrated and restructured, in advance, in a Semantic Data Store. This makes any analysis process much easier.
• Imagine analyzing large amounts of data of all kinds and retrieving a value from them in a specific and precise way.

Types of data warehouses

If we strictly stick to company data warehouses, today we can have three main types:

• Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW): A data warehouse that contains the business data of a business and that includes all the information about its customers. It enables data analysis and can provide actionable insights. It also offers a unified approach to organizing and representing such data.
• Operational Data Warehouse (ODS): We are faced with a central database that provides us with a snapshot of the freshest data from multiple transactional systems so that we can prepare operational reports. The ODS enables organizations to combine data in its original format, from several sources, to produce business reports.
• Data market: It focuses on a single functional area of an organization and encompasses a subset of stored data. The data marketplace is specially designed for use by a specific department or set of users in an organization. We are talking about a condensed version of the data warehouse.

Small retrospective

Most would stop the clock on their time machine in 1980, where they believe that the concept of the data warehouse arises, but we would have to let it run a little further back, to the hippy sixties. When Dartmouth and Mills develop the term dimension and facts in a collaborative project.

Then we would advance to the seventies to witness how Nielsen and IRI introduce Dimensional Data Marts for retail sales, Tera Data Corporation launches a database management system prepared to help and assist in making decisions, and then, after a decade of progress, in the eighties, where the first implementation of a data warehouse emerged by the hand of Paul Murphy and Barry Devlin, IBM workers.

From the data warehouse to the Cloud?

As we have already seen in previous articles, the coronavirus pandemic that has devastated our planet has a lot to do with the new technological restructuring and with the religious ascents to the Cloud. It is also, of course, to blame for moving data warehouses to Cloud platforms.

On-premise data warehouses have great advantages: security, speed, etc. But they are not that elastic, and the foresight to determine how to scale the data warehouse, regarding future needs, is quite complex. During the famous Confinement, most moved to the Cloud and the data warehouses were going to follow their example of course. Even those in large companies, those who no one thought they could abandon their local data centers, are switching to the Cloud to make the most out of its advantages. That flexibility in computing and storage. Its ease of use, its versatile management and its profitability.

Tomorrow: Automation of the data warehouse

The list of issues a data warehouse deals with is still there: data integration, data views, data quality, optimization, competing methodologies, and so on. However, we can find an answer: warehouse automation..

With data warehouse automation, a data warehouse can use the latest technology for pattern-based automation and advanced design processes. This allows you to automate the planning, modeling and integration steps of the entire life cycle. We are faced with what seems like a very efficient alternative to traditional data warehouse design, one that reduces time-consuming tasks such as generating and deploying ETL codes on a database server.

After this long journey through the life and exploits of the data warehouses, we say goodbye, as you can see, focusing on the answers that it promises to give us in the near future. We will always be positive in the matter.

The fight of the century: Data Center VS Cloud! Let’s go!

In this blog we have always been eager for fights or competitions of whatever we please. We are like that, like fierce pokemon trainers who want to finally find out who has the greatest capabilities to win. They have praised us for it, they have hated us for it, but it does not matter, the point here is not having fun, but to give the most complete information about the litigants and the battle, so that the user can see closely who they should choose in the future. For all these reasons, today we have in our very own ring Data Center VS Cloud.

How to choose between a data center and Cloud storage?

When the decisive moment arrives, a company must decide about what it intends to do with data storage: “Do we send everything to the Cloud? Do we store our data right here, in our datacenter? Do we outsource them to a professional data center? After all, there are multiple factors, financial elements, the logistics of the company, different clauses and details. A lot of regulation to take into account that has you sweating when it comes to finding the correct answer.

The truth? In this article we are going to expose situations in which data centers beat the Cloud, because, for better or for worse, we are facing a foreseen victory.

Do you need more security?

It is true that the Cloud is no longer sooo in cloud 9 and both the Cloud and its computing and data storage solutions have made great progress in recent times. In fact, they offer a great infrastructure with protected access and the add-on of pay-as-you-go. But if you really want to have the appropriate protocols, compliance and security software, well, your data can be better and more secure in a data storage center, external or at home. There are many companies that offer external, professional and guaranteed data storage, which certifies that the information is your exclusive property and that the data will always be kept safe.

As we have said, storage security in IT Clouds is not as weak as some leaks of private pictures of celebrities have led us to believe. What’s more, the Cloud is often the first choice for a large number of companies, but there are certain nuances in Cloud storage that lead others to choose data centers. And there is a certain lack of control when choosing Cloud storage: problems with shared servers, lack of automatic backups, data leaks, fraudulent devices, vulnerable storage gateways, etc.

Combining infrastructure and profitability

If there is something that the clouds look like from the mainland, it is comfort and convenience, and so does the Cloud, something comfortable, agile… However, user fees can end up being quite expensive, depending on the type of services that one might need. An on-premise data center, in your own facilities, can also be one of the most expensive options, in addition that to manage it you must have a good security and IT team that takes care of regular updates and keeps it operational and always ready.

External storage might be the middle ground. Your own space within a data center or as part of a colocation package. If you think about it, you get the advantages of the Cloud without having to spend all that money that normally requires hosting data on a local data center. It is a very attractive option, considered by companies that have started getting consolidated and are now in full growth. Something more robust and reliable than the Cloud and without so many problems with the facilities.

Do you handle sensitive customer data?

Do you know when companies make up their minds quickly in this fierce fight between on-premise vs Cloud? When it comes to collecting, saving and using customer data that if leaked, lost or stolen would mean the destruction of their business, the private life of the person who trusted them or the public welfare in general. To give you an idea, Emperor Palpatine would never hang plans for The Death Star in the Cloud. Too risky.

Imagine then companies that compile and safeguard financial, political, medical, institutional, sensitive data… All of them choose to use physical data centers instead of the Cloud. And the same goes for telecommunications or social media companies. Physical centers are not the best thing ever, but the Cloud has proven itself more often to be vulnerable and easier to be violated more times.

You need a Cold Storage Location

When we talk about a Cold Storage Location we mean the storage of data that is completely offline, that is, they are not in the Cloud at all, they do not relate to the Cloud, they do not want the Cloud, they do not know what the Cloud is. Data is stored on safe physical means and then moved off-site in the event of a cataclysm. Like you know, a dana, a volcanic explosion, the Twister hurricane or a robbery attempt. This data storage option is often used by companies that have long-term compliance dates, financial institutions, brands threatened by ransomware attacks… They all see Cold Storage Location as the safest backup plan they can have.

Conclusion: Then, what about it?

Well, if we have to reach some conclusions, it must be said that storage in the Cloud is often convenient and has its place, but, of course, it is not the only option, nor is it the best for many companies. Data centers are the ones that best help companies, provide them with security, scalability and peace of mind. It is also the only alternative for companies looking for Cold Storage Location.

After this brawl, Cloud VS on-premise, you can take more into account the advantages and disadvantages of each one of them and make the best decision for your company and your customers’ data.

Pandora FMS Monitoring as a service is here!

On the way to perfecting its services, Pandora FMS launches one of the most advanced and complete solutions in its history as monitoring software: Monitoring as a Service (MaaS).

As we all know by now, Pandora FMS is a software for network monitoring that, among many other possibilities, allows visually monitoring the status and performance of several parameters from different operating systems (servers, applications, hardware systems, firewalls, proxies, databases, web servers, routers…). It can also be deployed on almost any operating system and has remote monitoring (WMI, SNMP, TCP, UDP, ICMP, HTTP …), etc.

But what concerns us this time is to see how Pandora FMS once again surpasses itself with Monitoring as a Service. Because yes!, it is time for you to have Pandora FMS ready to use and ready to cover all of your needs. Avoid, from now on, wasting valuable resources on installation, maintenance and operation, MaaS is fully intended as a flexible and easy-to-understand subscription model.

Monitoring as a Service (MaaS) advantages

In order not to roughly explain it in a rush, we better go into detail and list some of the most important advantages of Monitoring as a Service (MaaS).

• With Monitoring as a Service, you do not need to invest in an operations center, or in an internal team of engineers to manage monitoring. That’s it, without capital expenditures (capex) or operating expenditures (opex).
• With Pandora FMS as a Service monitoring you may accelerate the time to obtain values.
• Available 24/7, access it anytime, anywhere. There are no downtimes associated with monitoring. Wonderful and available 24/7.
• Generate alerts based on specific business conditions and discover the easy integration of this service with business processes.
• Important: Permanent security. All information is protected, monitored and complies with GDPR.
• Operation services, we can operate for you, saving resources and optimizing startup times.
• Custom integrations, with Pandora FMS specialist consultants at your disposal.
• Deployment projects, to support specialized resources wherever you need them.

Here is our proposal in more detail

What does this mean for your company or business?

Going straight to the point, Monitoring as a service (MaaS) provides unlimited scalability and instant access from anywhere and gets rid of worrying about maintaining storage, servers, backups, and software updates.

It is up to you to discover, right away, how the digital transformation of all business processes makes Monitoring as a Service (MaaS) an essential activity to boost the productivity of your company.

Some frequently asked questions about the solution (FAQ)

Of course, given such a technological scoop, you may have some doubts about the subject. Here we answer several of the most frequent questions that we were asked.

What agent limit does the service have? Does it have an alert or storage limit?

There is no agent limit, although the service starts from 100 agents. There is no limit on alerts or disk storage.

How long is history data stored?

45 days maximum. However, you may optionally hire a history data retention system to store data for up to two years.

What is the service availability? What happens if it crashes on a weekend?

The service availability SLA is 99.726% in Basic service, 99.932% in Standard service and 99.954% in Advanced service. In short, we will make sure it is never down.

In which country are the servers located?

We have several locations, to comply with different legislations, such as GDPR (EU), GPA (UK), CBPR (APEC) and CPA (California).

What security does the service offer?

In addition to an availability SLA guaranteed by contract, our servers are exclusive for each client, we have 24/7 monitoring, and our own system security. Of course, backup is included in the service.

How much does the service cost?

You pay a fee per month, which is calculated on the number of agents you are using that month. So if you increase the number of agents in a certain month, you will pay more that month. However, if you decrease the number of agents, you will pay less. There are also some start-up costs for the service and also some optional packages, such as if you want our engineers to develop a custom integration or help you deploy monitoring in your internal systems.

How is it billed?

Quarterly or semi-annually, with monthly cost calculations, so you can plan growth and costs without surprises.

What does the service include?

From Pandora FMS Enterprise license to the operating system, database management, system optimization, maintenance, updates, emergency patches, integration with Telegram and SMS sending, backup and recovery, preventive maintenance, environment security and any other technical task that may take up operating time. You will only have to operate with Pandora FMS.

What is the difference between Basic, Standard and Advanced services?

With the basic service, if you want to make a report or configure an alert, you can do it directly, without worrying about installing, configuring or parameterizing anything. In the Standard and Advanced service you can ask us to do it for you and we will be happy to do so, the same applies for building remote plugins, creating reports, users, policies, graphs or any other administrative Pandora FMS task. In the Standard and Advanced services you will have a number of hours of service each month for any request you may make, and our technical team will be at your disposal. Our technical team will be at your complete disposal.

What are the service hours?

Full office hours (from 9 AM to 6 PM) in America and Europe. From San Francisco to Moscow.

If you can no longer handle the intrigue and want to see how far the possibilities of Monitoring as a service go, you may now hire the solution through this link.