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Cyberattacks Have Increased During the Pandemic, Learn How to Protect Yourself

Cyberattacks have been causing concern and discomfort for those who use and depend on digital spaces for some time now.

This type of activity disrespects the private life of social subjects, in order to expose them to different types of risks.

They usually occur unexpectedly and victims suffer numerous damages, whether monetary, psychological or otherwise.

This action is commonly practiced by malicious hackers, who are dedicated to committing crimes in virtual systems through their technical knowledge of the software.

Hackers can infect connected devices by sending a virus, affecting their performance, and causing irreversible damage.

Likewise, these malicious attackers can steal personal data and information from computers, laptops, tablets, mobile phones, and other connected digital technology devices.

The practice of these crimes can generate harm with no turning back for those who suffer them, and they are more common than it seems.

During the crisis of the new coronavirus, this became even more evident.

The Scenario of Cyberattacks During the New Coronavirus Pandemic

It is possible to state that, if the situation was already quite serious before the pandemic, with the arrival of the new coronavirus, it only worsened.

The new virus brought many complications and, due to the preventive measures required to avoid a more catastrophic situation than the current one, preventive sanitary measures were taken, including social distancing.

This has led many people to work from home. The number of home office jobs had a considerable increase because companies and businesses across the country had to start a process of moving from the physical to the virtual world to survive the crisis.

A consequence was people starting to consume more products online due to isolation, which caused the virtual market and the demand for connectivity to skyrocket.

From this perspective, especially considering the emergency context of society’s shift to the digital world and coinciding with the growth in the number of users, the consequence was a considerable increase in the number of cyberattacks.

This demonstrates a problematic situation in several spheres.

For this reason, it becomes increasingly important to take preventive measures, both concerning the new coronavirus, as well as the security of your electronic equipment and digital devices.

Some precautions and preventive measures can be essential so that a situation as unpleasant as cybercrime is avoided, preventing possible troubles and losses that can often be irreparable.

Protect Yourself from Cyberattacks During the Pandemic

Although it is regrettable to have to worry about the security of your electronic devices, as well as data and personal information in virtual systems that, presumably, should be protected, it is important to be aware of the dangers that exist within the digital world.

By knowing the risks, one can look for preventive measures and, in this way, reduce the chances of potential damage. Here’s some information that can help protect against cyberattacks.

Choose Your Password Wisely

It may seem trivial, but choosing a more complex password makes it very difficult for attackers to gain access to your systems and networks.

Therefore, an important tip is to choose passwords with a higher degree of difficulty, especially those used in more significant virtual spaces; try to develop a more elaborate password.

At the same time, it is interesting to change the password from time to time, helping to reduce the number of data recorded during a certain period.

We often access websites or virtual platforms on different electronic devices and this can facilitate access by malicious individuals.

In the last year, there was also an increase in the number of leaks of various users’ data and information throughout Brazil.

For this reason, it is recommended that you double-check if you are among this group of people. You can perform this check through the senhasegura Hunter website and find out if any of your data has already been exposed.

If after checking it, you discover that your privacy has been invaded and your data has been exposed, immediately change your passwords and check that there has been no serious damage.

Search for PAM Solutions

PAM (Privileged Access Management) solutions work as a great support in managing the passwords of your organization’s critical systems and in protecting your data.

This type of solution works as a repository that stores and protects passwords, information, and important documents of your business. Also, a PAM solution such as senhasegura monitors access and ensures control and security of the passwords provided.

About Version 2 Digital

Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.

Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

About Segura®
Segura® strive to ensure the sovereignty of companies over actions and privileged information. To this end, we work against data theft through traceability of administrator actions on networks, servers, databases and a multitude of devices. In addition, we pursue compliance with auditing requirements and the most demanding standards, including PCI DSS, Sarbanes-Oxley, ISO 27001 and HIPAA.

RADIUS Authentication, Now in the Cloud

Understanding RADIUS Authentication

Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) is a protocol that was historically designed to authenticate remote users to a dial-in access server. Today, RADIUS authentication is used across an array of scenarios and is well known for it AAA capabilities — authentication, authorization, and accounting. By centralizing AAA capabilities, organizations give themselves improved security and greater efficiency. RADIUS servers provide each business with the ability to preserve the privacy and security of both the system and each individual user.

A basic RADIUS accounting process includes:

  1. The process starts when the user is granted access to the RADIUS Server.
  2. The RADIUS Client sends a RADIUS Accounting-Request packet known as Accounting Start, to the RADIUS Server. The request packet comprises the user ID, network address, session identifier, and point of access.
  3. During the session, the Client may send additional Accounting-Request packets known as Interim Update to the RADIUS Server. These packets include details like the current session duration and data usage. This packet serves the purpose of updating the information about the user’s session to the RADIUS Server.
  4. Once the user’s access to the RADIUS Server ends, the RADIUS Client sends another Accounting-Request packet known as Accounting Stop, to the RADIUS Server. The packet includes information such as total time, data, and packets transferred the reason for disconnection, and other information relevant to the user’s session.
  5. Ultimately, RADIUS authentication prevents your organization’s confidential data from being leaked. It also allows easy depreciation capabilities and enables individual users to be assigned with unique network permissions based on their location, role, etc.

RADIUS Authentication in the Cloud

It’s well known today that RADIUS authentication is an effective way of enhancing network security, visibility and control. Just as more and more organizations move their enterprise software stack to the cloud, so too are they demanding flexibility and ease of deployment as it relates to RADIUS. This has given rise to the cloud RADIUS, a modern take on the traditional on-premise RADIUS server.

Standing up a cloud RADIUS offers several benefits for your organization, including:

  • Built-in redundancy
  • Ease of deployment
  • Cost efficiency
  • Auto-scaling
  • ..the list goes on…

For these reasons, network engineers are turning cloud RADIUS solutions in droves. And as vendors like Portnox continue to make advances in machine learning, the reliability and feature sets of cloud RADIUS options become more and more appealing.

Portnox CLEAR’s Cloud RADIUS

Securing your network will always be a priority – no doubt one of many priorities your IT team is faced with – but it doesn’t need to be a drain on time and resources. With Portnox’s RADIUS-as-a-Service solution, companies can now efficiently and affordably authenticate to wifi, VPN, switches and network devices, while simplifying administration and enabling long-term scalability.

Tired of all the heavy lifting when it comes to standing up RADIUS servers? We feel your pain, that’s why we’re making it easier than ever to securely authenticate and control wired and wireless network access for all your users and devices.

How it Works

About Version 2 Digital

Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.

Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

About Portnox
Portnox provides simple-to-deploy, operate and maintain network access control, security and visibility solutions. Portnox software can be deployed on-premises, as a cloud-delivered service, or in hybrid mode. It is agentless and vendor-agnostic, allowing organizations to maximize their existing network and cybersecurity investments. Hundreds of enterprises around the world rely on Portnox for network visibility, cybersecurity policy enforcement and regulatory compliance. The company has been recognized for its innovations by Info Security Products Guide, Cyber Security Excellence Awards, IoT Innovator Awards, Computing Security Awards, Best of Interop ITX and Cyber Defense Magazine. Portnox has offices in the U.S., Europe and Asia. For information visit http://www.portnox.com, and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.。

Industroyer: A cyber‑weapon that brought down a power grid

Five years ago, ESET researchers released their analysis of the first ever malware that was designed specifically to attack power grids

On June 12th 2017, ESET researchers published their findings about unique malware that was capable of causing a widespread blackout. Industroyer, as they named it, was the first known piece of malware that was developed specifically to target a power grid.

Indeed, Industroyer had been deployed to considerable effect a few months earlier – it caused thousands of homes in parts of Kyiv, Ukraine to lose power supplies for about an hour on December 17th, 2016, after the malware struck a local electrical substation. A few days later, ESET malware researcher Anton Cherepanov would start dissecting Industroyer.

A ticking bomb

Once planted, Industroyer spread throughout the substation’s network looking for specific industrial control devices whose communication protocols it could speak. Then, like a time bomb going off, it apparently opened every circuit breaker at once, while defying any attempts of the substation operators to regain easy control: if an operator tried to close a breaker, the malware opened it back up.

To clean up its footprint, the malware unleashed a data wiper that was designed to leave the substation’s computers inoperable and delayed the return to normal operations. Indeed, the wiper often failed, but had it been more successful, the consequences could have been much worse – especially in wintertime when a power outage can allow pipes filled with water to crack when they freeze.

A final malicious act was made by the malware to disable some of the protective relays at the substation, but that failed too. Without functioning protective relays in place, the substation equipment could have been at high risk of damage when the operators eventually reestablished electric transmission.

As Cherepanov and fellow ESET researcher Robert Lipovsky said at the time, the sophistication of Industroyer makes it possible to adapt the malware to any similar environment. In fact, the industrial communication protocols that Industroyer speaks are used not only in Kyiv, but also “worldwide in power supply infrastructure, transportation control systems, and other critical infrastructure systems (such as water and gas)”.

On the other hand, considering how sophisticated Industroyer was, its impact was ultimately rather underwhelming, as ESET researchers noted themselves back in 2017. Perhaps it was only a test for future attacks, or perhaps it was a sign of what the group behind it could do.

The work of Sandworm

The shenanigans of the malware, ESET researchers noted, mirror the malicious intentions of the people who created it. At a Virus Bulletin conference in 2017, Lipovsky highlighted that the “attackers had to understand the architecture of a power grid, what commands to send, and how that will be achieved”. Its creators went a long way to create this malware, and their objective was not just a power outage. “Some clues in the Industroyer configuration suggest they wanted to cause equipment damage and malfunction”.

At Black Hat 2017, Cherepanov also pointed out that it “seems very unlikely anyone could write and test such malware without access to the specialized equipment used in the specific, targeted industrial environment”.

In October 2020, the United States attributed the attack to six officers belonging to Unit 74455, aka Sandworm, a unit within Russia’s military intelligence agency GRU.

A comeback for Industroyer

Fast forward to 2022 and it’s no surprise that in the weeks just before and after Russia’s invasion on February 24th, ESET telemetry showed an increase in cyberattacks targeting Ukraine.

On April 12th, together with CERT-UA, ESET researchers announced they had identified a new variant of Industroyer that targeted an energy supplier in Ukraine. Industroyer2 had been scheduled to cut power for a region in Ukraine on April 8th; fortunately, the attack was thwarted before it could wreak further havoc on the war-torn country. ESET researchers assessed with high confidence that Sandworm was again responsible for this new attack.

A harbinger of things to come

In recent years, it’s become more than clear that the world’s critical infrastructure services are at major risk for disruptions. The string of incidents that have impacted critical infrastructure in Ukraine (and, indeed, other parts of the world) have awakened much of the public to the risks of cyberattack-induced power outages, water supply interruptions, fuel distribution disruptions, loss of medical data and many other consequences that can do far more than just disrupt our daily routines – they can be truly life-threatening.

Back in 2017, both Cherepanov and Lipovsky concluded their research blog with a warning that, five years later, still holds true: “Regardless of whether or not the recent attack on the Ukrainian power grid was a test, it should serve as a wake-up call for those responsible for security of critical systems around the world”.

Author: André Lameiras

About Version 2 Digital

Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.

Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

About ESET
For 30 years, ESET® has been developing industry-leading IT security software and services for businesses and consumers worldwide. With solutions ranging from endpoint security to encryption and two-factor authentication, ESET’s high-performing, easy-to-use products give individuals and businesses the peace of mind to enjoy the full potential of their technology. ESET unobtrusively protects and monitors 24/7, updating defenses in real time to keep users safe and businesses running without interruption. Evolving threats require an evolving IT security company. Backed by R&D facilities worldwide, ESET became the first IT security company to earn 100 Virus Bulletin VB100 awards, identifying every single “in-the-wild” malware without interruption since 2003.

10 reasons to change your monitoring software

Every change is for the better and we give you ten reasons to change your monitoring software.

Cuando se habla de cambiar de software, no sé por qué, me viene a la mente la compra de música. Bueno, yo soy de los de antes: vinilos, cassettes, a principios de siglo los CD y DVD… Claro, ahora es diferente, actualmente existe el pago por suscripción, que reproduce en línea, y donde generalmente se ofrece el álbum de turno o paquetes completos con muchas estrellas musicales…

We could start right there, highlighting the difference between “the cloud and the earth”, running software on the Internet versus having one on your own physical servers. Both have their costs, we know. In fact, we already gave detailed information in another article on the subject. Because before talking about changing your monitoring software we must start there, the money. That’s the reason why you will have to take into account several factors, so let’s go for pencil and paper (virtual) and let’s start numbering!

1) Pandora FMS offers several forms of installation and download, as well as modes of operation. That is one reason to consider switching monitoring software. This mechanism allows you to grow, and, if necessary, reinstall at any time. You don’t have to buy a whole package either: in Pandora FMS you start by installing the Community version and as you see the benefits for yourself, you can move on to installing and testing the Enterprise version, without obligations or hassle. There you will always have the installers, both online and offline, as many times as you need them.

2) Do you have a feature in mind that cannot be found in any monitoring software? Don’t be embarrassed, it happens. I, at the very least, am very picky about how to insert text and data into text or number boxes. When you focus on them, I like for the text to be selected in a specific color, for example. And don’t even let me begin on entering numerical amounts or phone numbers.

And Pandora FMS does not have exactly that requirement either… However, you just have to go through the Community version that is open source and through its forum to get the help you need to develop the idea.

Better yet, you may have already been successful but now you want a more ambitious and highly customized improvement for your company: try the Enterprise version, where they will give you professional advice and offer you extraordinary improvement plans tailored to your needs. After all, only you know what is best for your company and what it needs. An exactly tailored suit or smehting ready-to-wear ? You choose!

3) With Pandora FMS you will be able to monitor at first remotely, without interfering much in your work processes, continue with an advanced remote configuration and, if everything goes smoothly, advance to monitoring with Software Agents, which are installed on each device. While you change -and advance- Pandora FMS has already outlined the path until (for now) June 2023. Exploring and changing monitoring software can be done before it’s necessary, even if it’s late.

4) Using great monitoring software, widely used worldwide and also used by large corporations, is not a guarantee of good security. I invite you to read about the case that took many headlines in the press, social networks, radio and television. Take this chance to have a coffee and take a deep breath to come back, there are still six reasons to change your monitoring software.

5) Because you don’t believe in magic wands. Neither do I, and in Pandora FMS that is very clear for them. Each client has a different problem and it is necessary to adapt to each particular case. But it will not be by magic, you have to invest time and effort, and in that domain Pandora FMS offers decades of proven experience.

6) Because “we just know that we do not know anything”. Without the aim to go in depth into the philosophical field, we must always pay attention to constant learning. Perhaps the documentation of your software is quite poor and it would be a good time to change it. Pandora FMS has forums of users of the Community version, documentation, tutorials and this blog that you are reading today. With all of them you can learn at your own pace, but if you want or rather need a push – certification included – check out our training in monitoring. Psst, with the Enterprise license this last one is included, don’t miss the chance!

7) Another reason to change your monitoring software is indeed not to change anything! Perhaps you simply need a monitoring contingency plan or an alternative of audit or measurement of result comparison. For example, I am a client of DigitalOcean, a company that provides virtual computers and that has both monitoring processes (Software Agent type) in each droplet (virtual machine), as well as at large-scale with Prometheus in its hypervisors. However, remote checks and Pandora FMS Software Agents are more useful for me, which also helps me verify information. It is not that I don’t trust the monitoring software implemented by my own provider, but rather you must always have different options, see the full horizon to be able to choose the way forward.

8) Because two are better than one: eHorus is a remote access program that can later be integrated with Pandora FMS. EHorus remote access software can be integrated into Pandora FMS, so you may combine computer – or client – monitoring, find out the bandwidth consumption of your network, the software installed on your PC, see logs and events and connect to the computers you need from the monitoring console itself. Test without commitment nor cost for up to 10 devices.

9) Because three is better than one. We add another reason to change your monitoring software, Integria IMS. Fully compatible and integrated with Pandora FMS. Integria IMS incorporates your forms for clients in your own Web, feeding Integria IMS directly through API. In addition you will have access to lots of articles, downloadable files, multi language, categorized and with access control to manage incidences. Monitor changes and performances on your machines with Pandora FMS agents!

10) Is the “billiard ball” with the number ten missing? You yourself can add the tenth reason to change your monitoring software. Tell us about your experience with other software, you can leave your comments below, visit our channel at YouTube, Linkedin or Twitter.

About Version 2 Digital

Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.

Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

About PandoraFMS
Pandora FMS is a flexible monitoring system, capable of monitoring devices, infrastructures, applications, services and business processes.
Of course, one of the things that Pandora FMS can control is the hard disks of your computers.

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