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New AppBlocker feature

As you might have already noticed, our dashboard has a “new” flag – it means AppBlocker is now added to the SafeDNS infrastructure.

AppBlocker is a feature that blocks access to various groups of apps. It helps users keep the business infrastructure safe with a more granular filtering & easily block all domains related to certain applications, such as file sharing, system monitoring, VPNs etc. Basically, any apps that might bring any cybersecurity risks upon your business or data theft to your system.

The apps form groups for blockage:

  • ecosystems (Apple, Google, WeChat and more),
  • file sharing services (Dropbox, uTorrent, 4shared and more)
  • messaging apps (Slack, Snapchat, Viber and more),
  • portals (Baidu, Yahoo etc),
  • technology services (GitLab, GitHub),
  • VoIP (RingCentral, Zoom, LogmeIn and more),
  • VPN services (NordVPN, CyberGhost VPN and more),
  • cybersecurity services (Shodan, Zscaler),
  • financial services (Ethermine, Flypool and more),
  • mail services (ProtonMail, Thunderbird, Hushmail and more),
  • remote desktop services (RemotePC, AnyDesk, TeamViewer).

To see the full list of apps to block, check out the Categories tab in the dashboard, and then choose AppBlocker.

The user is free to choose any app or app group to block, as the list is fully customizable.

Try it out and see for yourself!

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 SafeDNS
SafeDNS breathes to make the internet safer for people all over the world with solutions ranging from AI & ML-powered web filtering, cybersecurity to threat intelligence. Moreover, we strive to create the next generation of safer and more affordable web filtering products. Endlessly working to improve our users’ online protection, SafeDNS has also launched an innovative system powered by continuous machine learning and user behavior analytics to detect botnets and malicious websites.

Industry 4.0 – What Is It, and Why do You Need to Start Thinking About It?

In recent years, the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies such as automation, 3D printers, robotics, and IoT is gaining a lot of momentum across manufacturers. These technologies that interface with the production lifecycle enable businesses to improve productivity and competitiveness through cost control and planning.

However, the competitive advantage achieved by the deployment of Industry 4.0 technologies comes with a risk of vulnerability to cyber threats to a company. 

Operations and information security executives must effectively anticipate and address cyber risks, as well as proactively integrate cybersecurity into operations in accordance with senior management business plans. 

Thus, cybersecurity becomes part of mission-critical tasks, as well as business continuity and recovery for operation and information security executives. 

This involves protecting IT assets in a coordinated manner. The key to the success of secure and resilient operations is awareness of intentional or unintentional internal and external vulnerabilities and threats.

With this in mind, we provide a guide that covers the most relevant aspects of Industry 4.0 applied to the context of technology and cybersecurity. Start the text by understanding more about the origin of Industry 4.0.

What Is Industry 4.0?

The term Industry 4.0 is used to mean the beginning of the fourth industrial revolution – the previous three being mechanical production, mass production, and then the digital revolution.

As described in the book The Fourth Industrial Revolution by Professor Klaus Schwab, Industry 4.0 encompasses “new technologies that combine the physical, digital, and biological worlds, impacting all disciplines, economies, and industries. These technologies have great potential to continue connecting billions of people to the web and dramatically improve the efficiency of businesses and organizations.”

In its application and universal understanding of Industry 4.0, this term is more directly related to the world of manufacturing, and we can even call it Manufacturing 4.0. This industry is growing and transforming like never before. 

In its application to manufacturing, Industry 4.0 is considered “the growth of automation and Internet of Things (IoT)-powered data technologies, the cloud, advanced computers, robotics, and people.” The seamless integration of software, equipment, and people increases the speed, reliability, and flow of information between all systems of a manufacturer.

What Are the Main Characteristics of Industry 4.0?

Industry 4.0 is often summarized into six main features, essentially serving as part of the vision of Industry 4.0 and making the guidelines clearer for companies wishing to understand, identify, and implement Industry 4.0 projects.

What sets this latest industrial revolution apart is the fusion of technologies to save time, enable certain decisions, and reduce errors. This allows digital manufacturing to grow rapidly and widely. 

The technologies we are talking about have similar characteristics, as we will see below.

Interoperability

A simple example is that each web browser can work with all web pages because both use open standards to allow access for everyone. They work separately but depend on each other for success. For manufacturers, physical, human, and computer systems can communicate with each other.

Virtualization

Machines that use virtualization are more protected against malware and can be used to check for updates, run software tests, and test different configurations before presenting the final result. You can create a virtual copy of the smart factory for training simulation and testing without affecting the shop floor.

Decentralization

In Industry 4.0, decentralization means that machines do not rely on human interference to work. Physical systems have sensors connected to a network, capable of making automated decisions based on performance data.

Real-time Capacity

Technology has advanced so much that sensors feed data and algorithms instantly. These real-time data and analytics provide immediate results for faster problem responses and even predictive maintenance.

Service Orientation

The real-time capability made possible by big data and the free flow of information to interoperable systems enable companies to better meet customer needs. This allows companies to adapt to customers’ ever-changing needs and expectations as they occur, providing personalized service.

Modularity

It allows any production line activity to be changed immediately. With the connection and disconnection of different modules, companies can produce unique products in sequence without reconfiguring the entire assembly line.

How Did Industry 4.0 Emerge?

Before we delve into the technologies and challenges of Industry 4.0, we must understand how manufacturing and technology evolved, where they began, and how they began. 

There are four distinct periods when rapid technological developments lead to drastic demographic changes and ultimately helped shape our current world.

Industry 1.0

Industry 1.0 is synonymous with Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution is commonly referred to as a turning point in human history. Once industrialization began to occur, humanity changed forever.

The Industrial Revolution began somewhere between the middle of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. It began in Britain, spreading rapidly to Europe, the United States, and then the rest of the world. The innovative technology that emerged during this period included the steam engine, cotton, and locomotive engine.

Until then, most people worked in agriculture. They lived in small communities or farms. However, once the Industrial Revolution began, most of the work began to shift to factory work. Similarly, there was a massive increase in urbanization, as most jobs in the factories were in the cities.

Industry 2.0

In the early 20th century, the world entered its second Industrial Revolution. With the advent of electricity in the 1800s and the rise of steel production, manufacturing and technology accelerated to a level never seen before.

Electricity allowed manufacturers to increase their efficiency and make their manufacturing machines more mobile. Mass production has become commonplace. Industrial tycoon Henry Ford popularized the assembly line to increase overall productivity and lower prices.

Industry 3.0

After the destruction caused by World War II, a third technological revolution slowly began to emerge as nations began to recover. It was at this point in history that much of our modern technology began to take shape.

During the third Industrial Revolution, manufacturers started producing electronics, such as semiconductors, which eventually led to the modern computer, smartphone, and others. Likewise, mass telecommunications began to emerge.

Over the years, manufacturers have focused less on mechanical machines and more on digital technology and automation. Not to mention that advances in telecommunications have enabled rapid and effective communication, which has enabled globalization.

Industry 4.0

In the last decade, we have entered a new era of technology. Known as Industry 4.0, it adds to the transformation of digital technology that we experienced for the first time in Industry 3.0. However, this time, there is a greater focus on interconnectivity between IoT devices, introducing cyber-physical data and real-time data and analysis interpretation.

Industry 4.0 provides a much more interconnected, comprehensive, and holistic procedure for manufacturing. It can seamlessly connect digital and physical systems.

Similarly, advances in telecommunications enable better communication between company departments, third-party suppliers, and key stakeholders.

Industry 4.0 empowers business owners, managers, and team members to make better, more informed decisions and have greater control in their respective departments or functions. These professionals can leverage these insights to improve business processes, increase productivity, and sustain long-term growth.

What Are the Pillar Technologies of Industry 4.0?

Industry 4.0, as part of a broader concept called digital transformation, covers manufacturing from planning to delivery, with solutions for deep analysis, shop floor data sensors, smart warehouses, simulated changes, and product and asset tracking.

For manufacturers, Industry 4.0 technologies help bridge the gap between what were once isolated processes for a more holistic and visible view across the organization, with many actionable insights.

Below are the main digital transformation technologies brought by Industry 4.0.

Cognitive Computing

Cognitive technologies were not possible before the big data era. Cognitive systems need data to analyze – lots and lots of data. For most manufacturers, having enough data is no longer a problem. 

In fact, most manufacturers have access to more data than they can analyze using older methods and probably more data than they actually need. 

Cognitive manufacturing fully utilizes data present in equipment, systems, and processes to gain actionable insights across the value chain through different processes, from design to manufacturing and support activities. 

Built on the foundations of IoT and employing analysis combined with cognitive technology, Industry 4.0 or cognitive manufacturing drives its key productivity improvements in manufacturing environment reliability, quality, and efficiency.

Cloud Computing

With the advent of IoT and Industry 4.0, the reality is that data is being generated at an impressive speed and in large volumes, making manual handling impossible. This creates the need for an infrastructure that can store and manage this data more efficiently.

Cloud computing provides a platform for users to store and process large amounts of data on remote servers. It allows organizations to use computer resources without having to develop an on-premises computing infrastructure.

The ability of cloud computing to provide scalable computing resources and storage space enables companies to capture and apply business intelligence through the use of big data analytics, helping them consolidate and optimize manufacturing and business operations.

Mobile Technologies

Back office and manufacturing operation managers need complete visibility into every aspect of the manufacturing process, from supply chain logistics to enterprise asset management (EAM) and customer order fulfillment. 

Transparency leads to simpler operations and dramatic productivity growth as problems are perceived and solved more quickly. 

Mobile technologies help factory managers achieve this level of visibility by allowing them to easily switch between mobile and desktop tasks. This is an achievable vision today if manufacturing operations leaders carefully observe their workflows and strategically invest in innovative mobile applications.

Cybersecurity

You cannot have multiple technologies involved at every level of your business without some kind of protection to keep cybercriminals and other malicious agents out of your systems. 

Cybersecurity technology is what protects your digital systems from internal and external attack vectors. Modern cybersecurity involves technology such as blockchain or artificial intelligence and can protect new technologies such as industrial IoT devices.

With digitized and intelligent systems, manufacturers without appropriate cybersecurity are exposed to the threat of intellectual property theft, cybercriminal-driven manufacturing equipment to create faulty products, ransomware, identity theft, and more. 

However, manufacturers can mitigate security threats by creating a plan if they experience a breach, as well as enabling cyber protection measures that protect their data and equipment, including their IoT systems.

M2M – Machine to Machine

The machine-to-machine concept represents any technology that allows two devices to exchange information with each other, for example, to communicate and send data. The communication that occurs between the machines or devices is autonomous, and there is no need for human intervention for this data exchange to occur.

M2M connectivity is related to the Internet of Things (IoT). Both are part of the same concept and complement each other. Thanks to IoT, an interconnected machine or device system can be connected wirelessly and automatically exchange and analyze data in the cloud. In short, IoT is enabled by integrating many M2M devices and using cloud web platforms to process all this data.

3D Printing

3D printers are a vital part of Industry 4.0. While 3D printers came to market in the 1980s, commercially viable 3D printing was only possible in the last decade, thanks to the pioneering efforts of companies such as Stratasys and others. 

3D printing technology today is at a stage where companies are beginning to realize significant and tangible new value for themselves and their customers who use it. 

Leading companies and consultants around the world are making significant investments in 3D printing knowledge and capabilities so they can advise and join their customers on the Industry 4.0 wave and revolutionize supply chains, product portfolios, and business models in the process. 

Robotics

Although robotics has been used in manufacturing for decades, Industry 4.0 has given new life to this technology.

With recent advances in technology, a new generation of robotics is emerging, capable of performing difficult and delicate tasks. Powered by cutting-edge software and sensors, they can recognize, analyze, and act on the information they receive from the environment and even collaborate and learn from humans.

One area of robotics that gains significant strength is collaborative robots (“cobots”), designed to work safely around people, freeing workers from repetitive and dangerous tasks.

Big Data

Big Data refers to the large and complex datasets generated by IoT devices. This data comes from a wide variety of enterprise and cloud applications, websites, computers, sensors, cameras, and more, all in different formats and protocols.

In the manufacturing industry, there are many types of data to consider, including data from production equipment equipped with sensors and databases of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), CRM (Customer Relationship Management), and MES (Manufacturing Execution Systems) systems.

But how can manufacturers convert the collected data into actionable business insights and tangible benefits? With the analysis of this data. When it comes to data, the use of data analytics is essential to convert data into information that can provide actionable insights.

Ultimately, by collecting previously isolated data sets and analyzing them, companies can now find new ways to optimize processes that have the greatest effect on income.

Internet of Things

Simply put, IoT refers to a network of physical devices that are digitally interconnected, facilitating communication and data exchange over the Internet. These smart devices can be anything from smartphones and appliances to cars and even buildings.

Industrial IoT is a subset of the Internet of Things, where multiple sensors, radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, software, and electronics are integrated into industrial machines and systems to collect real-time data about their condition and performance.

IoT has many use cases, with asset management and tracking being one of the main applications of the technology today. For example, IoT can be used to prevent excess or lack in inventories.

What Are the Main Challenges Brought by Industry 4.0?

Although some organizations have consistent and holistic strategies toward Industry 4.0, most do not. The lack of strategy proves to be one of the greatest challenges, as it happens in many business areas.

There is a large gap between companies that have a long-term strategy and the others. The truth is that most organizations do not have an Industry 4.0 strategy and also suffer from the short strategic term. 

Organizations, in general, are focusing too much on the short term for changes in demands, as well as financial and competitive reasons. In any case, under Industry 4.0, it is clear that initiatives will not be sufficient unless they are part of a strategic journey. 

Moreover, we identified other obstacles and challenges brought by Industry 4.0 to companies.

  • Defining a strategy (for Industry 4.0) is the number one challenge.
  • Rethinking the organization and processes to maximize results.
  • Real understanding of the business case.
  • Conducting success tests.
  • Making the market realize that action is needed.
  • Management of changes, so often forgotten.
  • Company culture.
  • Real integration of departments.
  • Keeping talented professionals.

All of these are challenges that we have seen in so many other areas and there are two more we want to add:

  • Excellence in information management, as it is actionable intelligence, connected information, and process excellence in a context of relevance, innovation, and timely availability for any business, employee, and customer objective.
  • Cybersecurity and privacy. The increasing number of attacks on the IoT is a fact as technology and operations converge. In addition, one of the main reasons that hinder IoT initiatives is security concerns, and IoT is, as previously seen, a key component of Industry 4.0.

In addition to these challenges, there are other practical, technological, and ecosystem-related ones:

  • The challenges of IT and OT integration.
  • Data compliance regulations.
  • Managing risk and cost reduction in uncertain times.
  • Dealing with the complexity of the connected supply chain.
  • A better understanding of IT and OT technologies and, more importantly, how they can be leveraged.
  • Competition and the fact that Industry 4.0 champions quickly obtain a competitive benefit.

How Can These Risks be Circumvented?

It is an honest question that many entrepreneurs and managers ask. Indeed, Industry 4.0 may not be ideal for some companies. However, to better understand whether Industry 4.0 technology would be a great opportunity to add to your current business model, consider the following:

  • Do you work in a competitive industry with many dominant competitors in technology?
  • Do you have difficulty recruiting quality candidates to fill important positions in your company?
  • Are you trying to increase profitability and efficiency across your organization?
  • Do you need team members and managers to be regularly informed about up-to-date news regarding the company, production, schedules, and others?
  • Are you looking for more integrated business solutions that can encompass multiple departments, such as finances, accounting, customer support, supply chain, manufacturing, and more?
  • Do you want to improve product quality?
  • Do you need to digitize your current business processes?
  • Do you need to improve customer satisfaction and experience?
  • Do you need technology that can provide fast, accurate insights to help you make better decisions for the future of your business?

If you answered yes to one or more of the above questions, Industry 4.0 can be an incredibly beneficial investment for your business and its processes. 

However, if you are still unsure, read on to learn more about how companies use Industry 4.0 technology, as well as its benefits, use cases, and more.

How to Adapt Your Business to Industry 4.0?

It is important to note that Industry 4.0 is not just about technologies. It also analyzes the impact and role of society and employees.

For example, the collaboration between man and machine such as collaborative robots or cobots, new skill sets required of factory workers amid all these changes, and, inevitably, job losses due to continued automation as mentioned and how to face this great challenge.

Therefore, you need to have a long-term strategy to deal with the challenges as they arise. Below are the main pillars you need to structure to follow with Industry 4.0.

Business

The first step is a clear articulation of the desired future state of the company, which is linked to the strategy and objectives of the business and not to the technology with the most buzz. The selection of use cases for pilots is based on a favorable business case, to be refined as pilots are implemented.

Outlining a clear business case becomes more complicated when it expands beyond the four walls of the plant, but that is even more important. For example, supply chain integration generates savings by considering hidden costs that are often not explicitly accounted for. 

Understanding these issues helps organizations formulate an assertive business case that will convince suppliers to embark on an integration journey.

Technology

Many companies will want to evaluate their current IT and OT systems, updating them to provide the power that digital use and analytics cases rely primarily on to support the Internet of Things. 

A scalable, obsolescence-resistant IT structure is essential. Similarly, upgrades of vendors’ IT/OT systems may be required for horizontal end-to-end data integration.

To update the IT/OT technology structure and implement multiple use cases, companies can leverage external technology providers by creating an ecosystem of partners that can help them execute the digital transformation. 

Partnership models can vary between outsourcing, acquisitions, and strategic alliances, with successful ecosystems integrating a mix of startups and established service and technology providers.

Process & People Organization

Few digital transformations can succeed without focusing on people. Four factors provide crucial support.

  • Governance. A digital transformation without a clear owner may not be feasible. A cross-functional team and governance structures help ensure rapid execution.
  • Commitment of senior management. Transformations are more likely to happen when led by key leaders, with a compelling history of change to help mobilize the organization. To prevent momentum from slowing down, leaders can celebrate victories as well as failures that help the company learn to fail and learn quickly.
  • Acquisition of digital capacity. Skill gaps can be addressed by hiring when needed, as well as training existing employees to fulfill even more advanced digital functions such as analytics translator, data engineer, data scientist, or IoT architect.
  • New ways of working. Implementing agile work methodologies empowers teams with the tools, processes, and best practices to achieve success in a digital world.

Why is Cybersecurity Important for the Evolution of Industry 4.0?

Industry 4.0 also has a strong focus on protection. This not only means data security and communication networks, data protection, but also the security and protection of workers, industrial assets, critical infrastructures, and physical safety. 

As industrial assets and critical infrastructure (from critical energy buildings to power grids and more) connect and attacks increase in traditionally isolated industrial environments, the stakes and dangers of vulnerabilities and attacks are enormous in Industry 4.0, which requires a final solution. 

As attacks increase and the consequences may be high, it is also recommended not only to focus on cybersecurity but to combine it with risk management, business continuity, and other things in what is also known as cyber resilience, and this becomes essential as we continue to transform. 

Due to the various facets that security is necessary for the preservation and evolution of Industry 4.0, we will detail below the main technological risks associated with cybersecurity.

Interoperability of Industry 4.0 Devices, Platforms, and Structures

With the introduction and integration of Industry 4.0 devices, platforms, and structures into existing systems, the question of interoperability arises. In industrial environments, protecting the interconnectivity between multiple devices is often a challenge, especially when considering devices that have been unsupported for a long time. 

Therefore, it is essential to promote secure solutions to ensure the continuous integration of Industry 4.0 devices with legacy systems and with each other. For example, gateways to ensure transparent communication in the case of different network protocols or others.

In addition, the lack of interoperability is related to dedicated and proprietary protocols that are in use by Industry 4.0 devices. In the case of devices and platforms from different suppliers being used, interoperability cannot always be ensured. 

Ensuring interoperability between devices/platforms is not only about the perfect operation but also about security. Therefore, it is essential to address the problem of proprietary protocols that are not always secure and to adopt common frameworks to improve the functionality and security of Industry 4.0 solutions.

Technical Restrictions Preventing Security in Industry 4.0 and Intelligent Manufacturing

The difficulties in ensuring security in Industry 4.0 also result from the lack of technical capabilities of connected industrial devices and systems, especially considering integration with legacy infrastructures. 

Restrictions on embedded systems pose a major challenge, especially when it comes to low-cost ICSs (Industrial Control Systems) and PLCs (Programmable Logic Controller), as they face many problems with a direct impact on their security. 

The following limitations can be considered:

  • Limited processing capabilities and the need to ensure a long operating time while maintaining an acceptable size and competitive price for the device considerably affect the implementation of comprehensive security features in the design phase.
  • Little consideration for fundamental protection mechanisms when designing Industry 4.0 devices negatively influences their security. Patches and software updates are, in most cases, unfeasible solutions when it comes to low-cost devices, as they do not support such functionality.
  • Few more advanced security measures, such as encryption or authentication, for example, decrease the level of protection of devices closest to the industrial process. A fairly common approach of only protecting the network is insufficient.

Finally, considering the gaps related to limited technical resources, it is worth mentioning the fact that dedicated cybersecurity tools for Industry 4.0 systems are generally very few or inefficient. 

Tools for network monitoring, automatic asset discovery and configuration,

and management of changes in the environment increase the level of security of these systems and their availability.

What Should You Ensure for Your Cybersecurity Strategy to Work with Industry 4.0?

All this new technology and data collection have given cybercriminals new attack surfaces. And cyberattacks are not a distant threat. Let’s remember the Colonial Pipeline attack, which suddenly impacted communities in the US. This incident is a painful reminder that cybercriminals are innovative and organized and your defense should be as well. 

There is no simple solution to protect the security of your organization. Modern manufacturers are combining layers of smart, high-tech security with a culture of workplace data security and employee training. 

While each situation is different, here are five things you can do to help better protect your data in an Industry 4.0 world. 

 

Make a Commitment to Cybersecurity

A cyberattack has potential catastrophic effects on worker safety, environmental exposure, and the financial impact of production disruption. If your organization is still using legacy systems, it means it has a security vulnerability. 

It is time to commit to a serious technology upgrade. Redoing the cybersecurity infrastructure allows for a deep defense: the ability to monitor and protect the most important data and then propagate to all minor vulnerabilities. 

This includes the ability to examine security at the system level and then monitor and allocate resources accordingly to make informed decisions in the real world. Keeping current software patches, version updates, and security improvements can be your organization’s best investment for the future.

Build an End-to-End Security Strategy

As manufacturers add new access points and new technologies, they increase cyber risk. 5G technology with built-in security is more secure than most legacy systems, but it is not enough on its own. 

The reality is that you cannot manage the security of each individual device. For example, many manufacturing devices complete firmware and application updates over USB.

Ask yourself: Are we really protecting our devices? Who can log in and access the devices? Are they using secure processes? If you are unsure of the answers, your organization may not be fully protected.

What is needed is a holistic approach to data security. The cloud provides security for the data it manages, but the company still needs to maintain its own end-to-end security controls regardless of whether you operate in a cloud or hybrid environment. 

A good practice is to create private networks within the larger ecosystem to isolate areas, allowing to divide the network flow into different parts. For example, mission-critical applications may have one flow and end-users another, so there is a limited impact in the event of a security breach. Whatever method you choose, your defense systems must be broad and deep.

Consider Your Entire Supply Chain

Manufacturers need to understand not only their own security procedures but also those of their suppliers, partners, and customers. As more activities become interconnected beyond the “four walls,” extended security becomes increasingly important. 

Meanwhile, your vendors and suppliers are evaluating you with the same questions, or they should be. Does this company have strong cybersecurity technology and procedures? Can we trust to do business with them?

Make sure you and your suppliers share a common vision and commitment to cybersecurity.

Plan For The Worse

Organizations must prepare for the worst day, a ransomware attack, DOS, data leak, or another serious attack. What could be the impact of such an attack? Who will decide whether operations should shut down production? If production is shut down, what will be the effects? 

Manufacturers must have a detailed plan before something happens to better prepare for these situations. This includes media training and preparation of who will communicate with the public and customers. Manufacturers should conduct regular training to deal with worst-day cyberattack scenarios. You do not want to figure out what to do the day it happens.

Start At the Top

As with all major initiatives, your workforce will not buy adequate security unless it starts at the top. The CEO and the board should preach security to the entire organization.

More than that, they must boost the necessary investments in resources and capital. Cybersecurity should be a top priority for IT and OT and for all members of the organization that handle information, that is, everyone in a modern company.

As infrastructure changes and evolves, manufacturers will have to continually adapt to the attacker and stay one step ahead. By taking appropriate action today, companies will be able to reap the benefits of Industry 4.0 while keeping risks to a minimum.

Bonus Tip: Ask These Key Questions to Consider in Your Cybersecurity Strategy

 

Are You Investing Enough in Cybersecurity?

While government agencies have begun to invest more in setting cybersecurity standards, there is concern they are not enough focused on the manufacturing industry and frameworks are not always relevant.

There is still a lot of research to be done to identify manufacturers’ specific needs, but investing in a variety of security services, including consulting, training, software, and hardware, can help your business mature faster.

Do You Have a Clear Response Strategy to Mitigate an Attack?

Without an adequate response strategy, there is a risk that it will take longer for the business to recover and this will intensify any damage caused, financial or otherwise.

Manufacturers must have an audit trail for compliance and cyberattack insurance to provide support in the event of a data breach and for mitigation purposes. There also needs to be a clear management plan to minimize the effects. It is believed that cyberattacks will only become more prevalent.

Can You Ignore the Risk?

Attacks can range from causing minor production disruptions to serious damage to machines. As we have seen how Merck allegedly lost about $310 million in a violation, it is obvious a similar attack could harm a smaller company.

PAM As a Pathway to Industry 4.0

An organization that seeks to implement security controls and mitigate the cyber risks associated with Industry 4.0 needs to address issues associated with Privileged Access Management, or PAM.

A PAM solution is one of the main ways to guarantee the protection of a company’s confidential information and that all activities are tracked and audited.

Privileged Access Management, also called Privileged Identity Management, enables organizations to protect their privileged credentials. In addition, PAM ensures the effectiveness of least privilege policies by reducing attack vectors and possible data leaks.

Gartner believes that a PAM solution helps organizations securely provide privileged access to critical assets and meet compliance requirements by managing and monitoring privileged access and accounts. 

Basically, a PAM solution works as a secure credential repository for devices installed in the environment. Based on the management of user privileges, one can allow users to access only the data required for them to perform their activities. Thus, the information security team can configure user access profiles, avoiding improper access to systems and data.

Learn About the senhasegura Solution

In order to avoid data theft and traceability of actions in networks, databases, servers, and devices, senhasegura works to ensure digital sovereignty for institutions in several areas.

The solution is recommended for companies in the following scenarios:

  • Companies with more than 10 users.
  • Companies that received points of attention in auditing.
  • Companies that must comply with cybersecurity rules and regulations.
  • Companies that want to implement the best security practices.
  • Companies that have suffered a security incident.
  • Companies that need to reduce operating costs.

senhasegura allows companies to implement the most strict and complex controls on access to privileged credentials in an automated and centralized manner, protecting the IT infrastructure from data breaches and potential compliance breaches.

It has custom reports and audit trails of all privileged activities and separates privileged users and controls access to the environment through a centralized policy structure.

In addition, senhasegura restricts and monitors privileged users by applying the deepest level of granular control, robust password protection, and multifactor authentication.

It is also ready to meet business and market compliance requirements such as LGPD, GDPR, PCI DSS, SOX, NIST, HIPAA, ISO 27001, and ISA 62443.

Did you like our article and would like to have more details? senhasegura strives to ensure the sovereignty of companies’ actions and privileged information. To do so, we work against data theft and through traceability of administrator actions on networks, servers, databases, and a multitude of devices through a PAM solution.

Request a demo now and discover the benefits of senhasegura for your business.

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.

What’s New Pandora FMS 761

Let’s check out together the features and improvements related to the new Pandora FMS release: Pandora FMS 761.

What’s new in the latest Pandora FMS release, Pandora FMS 761

NEW FEATURES AND IMPROVEMENTS

New “Custom Render” Report

A new item has been included in Pandora FMS reports, Custom Render. With this report you can manage in a more customized way with SQL queries, module graphs and HTML output customization. It allows users to create fully customized reports visually, including graphs.

 

New TOP-N connections report

A new item has been included in Pandora FMS reports, TOP-N connections. With this report you will have a summary table with the total data from connections and with connections of the interval by port pairs.

New Agent/Module Report 

A new item has been included in Pandora FMS reports, Agents/modules status. With this report you will be able to have in a table the state of agents/modules with the last data and the timestamp of this last-received data.

New Agent/Module status Report

It allows users to show a list of agents/modules along with their state, filtering previously by group. 

New SLA services Report

A new item has been included in Pandora FMS reports, SLA services. With this report you will be able to see the SLA of the services that you wish to configure, combining data from different nodes in a single report.

New alert templates

If you want to use the new group, you have it available in our module library:

New Heatmap view

A new view has been added, that of Heatmap. In this view you can see all Pandora FMS information organized by groups and module or agent groups. It is a view that is permanently refreshed and that allows you to see at a glance all the monitored information.

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.

Learn How to Protect Your Company from Insider Threats.

Imagine yourself in a dining room in your company with colleagues and friends enjoying a meal. Suddenly, the lights flash and everyone’s belongings mysteriously disappear. The only suspects are those in the environment, including you. But how to find the culprit?

As much as the introduction of this text sounds a bit dramatic and the plot seems taken from an Agatha Christie book or a Sherlock Holmes tale, the feeling of having a threat within the company is very similar. An insider attack happens when least expected, while everyone involved in this compromised environment goes from innocent workers to suspects in a moment, and identifying the culprit is a challenging task.

Insider threats may be represented by careless or inexperienced employees, dissatisfied employees, third parties, partners, undercover spies, or any internal component that exploits or intends to exploit their legitimate access to assets to do something unauthorized.

According to a study by Verizon, 57% of information leaks involve insider threats and 15% of leaks are a consequence of the misuse of privileges.

As with detective cases, where a thief or a neighbor who does not live in the house is the primary suspect in crimes, many companies focus on threats outside the organization, such as cybercriminals and malware, while a dishonest employee may have been working among others for a long time without being identified, stealing information, and damaging business.

By having legitimate access and often unrestricted permission, these internal agents, malicious or not, can cause incidents within the organization without drawing attention, as they are somehow trusted by others while doing their job.

Disclosing confidential information, facilitating third-party access, and breaking equipment vital to a system are some of the incidents these bad employees may have. 

In addition, careless professionals who do not know the company and its processes are also insider threats, as they can cause errors when deleting important information or downloading infected files, for example, just because they are not prepared.

We invite you to continue reading the text and learn what you need to do to protect your business from insider threats.

Who Are Considered Insider Threats?

Insider threats can come from employees and even partners or third parties who have access to your systems, as detailed below.

  • Employees: They are above suspicion, are considered part of the organization, and are the last suspects.
  • Service Providers: These people are underestimated and they can take advantage of their access.
  • Partners and Third Parties: They are always under contracts and therefore receive access with high privileges, so the contract offers false protection to the company.

Former employees are also a threat. According to Deloitte, 59% of employees who leave a company voluntarily or involuntarily take data with them.

What Are the Main Motivations for Insider Threats?

In most cases, what motivates these internal malicious agents to cause an incident are financial and ideological issues, as well as the desire for recognition, loyalty to family, friends, or country, and even revenge. 

Regardless of motivations, malicious internal agents seek to leak sensitive data and disrupt processes, as these are the events that can most damage an organization. This fact is clearly corroborated by cases reported in the media, such as:

  • Edward Snowden Case: Snowden leaked nearly two million NSA files in 2013.
  • Ricky Mitchell: After he found out he was going to be fired, he restarted EnerVest’s servers to factory settings and discontinued operations for a month.
  • Zhangyi Liu: Chinese programmer working for Litton/PRC Inc. who accessed sensitive Air Force data. The contractor copied the credential passwords that were allowed to create, change, and delete any file on the network and posted them on the Internet.
  • Christopher Grupe: After being fired from the Canadian Pacific Railway, he accessed the system again to delete files and change passwords, preventing administrators from authenticating.
  • Paige Thompson: Former software engineer at Amazon Web Service, she accessed credit card information from more than 100 million Capital One customers. Amazon’s cloud environment configuration was not secure. Paige was aware of this incorrect configuration and abused her privileges to access data and share these methods in online chats.

Preventing an internal agent from stealing information can be more challenging than preventing an external agent from having access to assets, as internal agents have unrestricted access to endpoints and the network, and these are the components that correspond respectively to the means used to carry out attacks on an organization.

Other assets used to cause incidents internally are BYOD devices, which are increasingly accepted in companies today, even though their use is often uncontrolled.

Through these assets, attackers reach their real targets – databases and file servers -, as they keep the most valuable information for internal and external attackers, such as customer data, financial data, intellectual property, and privileged account data (credentials and passwords, for example).

This type of attack increases due to insufficient strategies or solutions to protect data, as well as a lack of training, employee expertise, and risk awareness at the administrative level of the organization.

What Are the Cyber Risks Associated with Insider Threats?

As we saw earlier, insider threats are not always exclusively from people who work directly for your organization. We can include consultants, outsourced contractors, suppliers, and anyone who has legitimate access to some of your resources.

To understand more about the subject, we have selected five possible scenarios in which insider threats may arise

  1. An employee or third party who performs inappropriate actions that are not intentionally malicious, they are just careless. Often, these people look for ways to do their jobs, but they misuse the assets, do not follow acceptable usage policies, and install unauthorized or dubious applications.
  2. A partner or third party that compromises security through negligence, misuse, or malicious access or use of an asset. For example, a system administrator may incorrectly configure a server or database, making it open to the public instead of private and with controlled access, inadvertently exposing confidential information.
  3. An agent bribed or requested by a third party to extract information and data. People under financial stress are often the main targets.
  4. A rejected or dissatisfied employee is motivated to bring down an organization from the inside, disrupting business and destroying or tampering with data.
  5. A person with legitimate privileged access to corporate assets, who seeks to exploit them for personal gain, usually stealing and redirecting information.

Whether the damage is caused intentionally or accidentally, the consequences of insider attacks are very real.

One of the ways to mitigate the risks of the scenarios above is to implement monitoring tools to track who accessed which files and alert administrators about unusual activities.

In addition to these actions, the management of privileged accounts also helps to reduce damage caused by insider threats and contributes to proactive cybersecurity behavior.

How to Reduce the Risks Associated with Insider Threats?

Any corporation is subject to some type of cyberattack, and it is essential to have a system that defends and maintains data integrity.

According to a report by Fortinet Threat Intelligence, Brazil has suffered more than 24 billion cyberattack attempts in 2019, a fact that reinforces the need to have efficient solutions against this type of threat.

Preventing external attacks is already very common within companies, and according to the Verizon Data Risk Report, 34% of data breaches involve internal agents and 17% of all confidential files were accessible to all employees, which turns on a big alert for companies to protect themselves from internal threats as well as external ones.

For this, it is recommended that some technology be implemented to efficiently monitor the privileged access of employees. To help you with this task, we have separated 5 practices on how to protect your company from insider threats, check them out:

1- Know Who Has Access to Privileged Accounts

One of the biggest mistakes of companies is making privileged credentials available to many users, which directly affects data breaches and the risk of leaks through internal threats.

You need to find out which people have access to protected environments, and ensure that people who do not need to access such environments have some kind of administrative credential, limiting the number of privileged users.

Ideally, credentials with a higher level of privilege should be controlled by those responsible for IT, so that there is no type of breach.

2- Ensure User Traceability

With the use of some technologies, you can know who, when, where, and what actions were taken by the user to perform a privileged session, in addition to limiting the actions that can be performed in the environment.

Some solutions alert and block the user who performs any improper action and provide session recording for analysis.

3- Third-Party Access

If any type of service provided to your company is outsourced, there must be some type of protection.

Ideally, any type of access to company environments should be monitored through a VPN dedicated to a specific application for a predetermined time.

The best way to ensure that there are no loopholes for internal threats in your company is by having a complete PAM password vault, which ensures protection from possible threats, monitors privileged sessions, and automates tasks.

4 – Password Culture

Even if it seems ineffective, implementing a strong password culture is a great way to avoid insider threats.

By memorizing a simple password, for example, a malicious employee can easily infiltrate privileged access and move around in environments that do not suit them, allowing possible attacks on the corporation.

In addition to protecting companies against insider threats, strong passwords also help to protect against external cyberattacks, therefore, ask your employees to use passwords with uppercase, lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.

It is also important to change these passwords constantly, so that there are no future problems.

5 – Backups

Even using every possible way to reduce the company’s security breaches, it is essential to have a way to recover the data in case of any leak or access block.

A good option is automatic backups in critical and strategic systems, which allows the company to refuse to give in to any type of threat by the attacker.

6 – Extra Practice

Obviously, this type of attack is the most difficult to predict and prevent. These are malicious agents who may be working alongside you right now.

However, some measures can be taken to make it difficult for a new internal attack to occur:

  • Checking Employee Background Before Hiring
  • Applying Mandatory Vacation and Work Rotation.
  • Monitoring Employee Behavior.
  • Educating and Training Employees.
  • Encouraging Employees to Report Abnormal Activities and Strange Behaviors of Their Colleagues if They Notice it.

Even With the Risk This Type of User Poses, They Are Necessary for the System. So, How to Control Them?

In another Haystax study, 60% of privileged IT users/administrators represent the greatest risk. They have large permissions within a system to execute infinite commands and view a large amount of information.

Privileged users are like stewards in suspense stories. They are the ones who have unrestricted access to various rooms in the house, perform important tasks, and are extremely trustworthy to members of the house, so it is no surprise when they are revealed as the guilty ones.

That is, privileged accounts are those with elevated access permission that allow account holders to access critical systems and perform administrative or privileged tasks. Like ordinary user accounts, privileged accounts also require a password to access systems and perform tasks.

Privileged accounts can be used by people or be non-human when used by applications or systems. The latter are also called service accounts. Privileged accounts, such as administrative accounts, are often used by system administrators to manage applications and hardware, such as network assets, and databases.

The problem with these accounts is that they are often shared, used on many systems, and can use weak or standard passwords, making it easier for insider agents to work.

Thus, when these accounts are not properly managed, they give insider agents the ability to access and download the organization’s most sensitive data, distribute malicious software, bypass existing security controls, and delete trails to hide their activities in audits.

One of the most secure ways to manage privileged accounts is through PAM (Privileged Access Management) solutions. This solution consists of cybersecurity strategies and technologies to exercise control over privileged access and permissions for users, accounts, processes, and systems in a corporate environment.

PAM As a Solution to Manage Insider Threats

As mentioned, privileged accounts represent high-value targets for insider agents. 

Organizations need to adopt a Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution and also provide data on access to privileged accounts for this solution in their monitoring systems.

Privileged Access Management – or simply PAM – consists of the technology and processes that control privileged access, store all access records for auditing purposes and analyze the actions taken by users in real-time, generating alerts about unusual activities. Using this technology can make the identification and mitigation of insider attacks much faster and more efficient.

Therefore, we selected 7 resources present in the PAM solutions that are strategic for those companies that seek to reduce the possibilities of insider threats.

  1. Use of effective policies for all employees, whether remote, service providers, or third parties.
  2. Protection for the credentials of your most confidential assets (confidential applications, databases, privileged accounts, and other critical systems) in a central and secure repository.
  3. Limitation of privileged access to confidential information, such as customer data, personally identifiable information, trade secrets, intellectual property, and confidential financial data.
  4. Least privilege procedures and resources to provide employees with just the access they need. That is what we call a need to know.
  5. Limitation of local administrator rights for all employees’ workstations; and implementation of permission, restriction, and denial policies to block malicious applications.
  6. Implementation of workflows for the creation and governance of privileged accounts.
  7. Monitoring and recording of privileged access to confidential information, data, and systems.

The first steps to better protect yourself and your customers from insider threats consist of applying at least some privileged access management best practices.

Start by learning more about how the principle of least privilege works, then it is important to establish and apply the best password management practices and, finally, invest in a comprehensive PAM solution that has all these resources at your disposal.

Learn About the senhasegura Solution

Senhasegura is one of the largest PAM solutions in the world according to Gartner. In addition to preventing data leaks and abuse of privilege and avoiding internal threats, the solution is complete to guarantee protection against external threats. 

The solution has granular access controls, credential management, detailed logging and session recording, and the ability to analyze user behavior. The senhasegura solution has several security locks that guarantee data protection from insider and external threats, such as logging, auditing, SSH key management, modules for secure DevOps, among others.

In addition, the implementation of senhasegura helps your organization to:

  • Apply the Security aspect to your DevOps pipeline, ensuring DevSecOps.
  • Carry out the proper management of digital certificates.
  • Comply with LGPD and GDPR.
  • Ensure security in your Cloud environment.

Request a demo now and discover hands-on the benefits of senhasegura to limit the damage caused by insider threats.

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.

John the Ripper Pt.4

Intro

In this article – the last in our John the Ripper series – we would like to focus on how we can use John to crack SSH keys, as well as mention some basics of Custom Rules.

SSH

What is SSH? When do we use it (or should)? How does it work, and what are some encryption techniques/technologies that SSH has to offer?

Let’s answer all of these questions briefly (it is a very big topic), before delving further into how john can leverage some of its functionalities to crack the SSH private key password of the id_rsa files.

SSH stands for Secure Shell, and is a remote administration protocol, which gives us the ability to access, control, or modify our remote infrastructure (usually servers) over the Internet. You might want to remote to your clients server to troubleshoot something, or to deploy some code.

Historically, SSH was created as a replacement for the much more insecure protocol called Telnet, which, even though with the same purpose, doesn’t offer encryption. You can see why that might make some of us feel quite awkward. SSH encrypts all of our communication to and from the remote server, by the virtue of encryption. With SSH we can authenticate a remote user, for example.

To use SSH, we can simply pull up the terminal (for MacOS/Linux) and type:

ssh <username>@<ip_address> -p(port_number)

Where the username is the name of the user we wish to connect as, and the IP address being that of our server we are connecting to. For Windows we can use a SSH client, the most known one being PuTTY.

For example, if we were to connect as a user called john to our remote server at 184.121.23.43 at the default port (for SSH its port 22), we would give a command like this:

ssh john@184.121.23.43 -p22

Regardless of our platform, once we’ve issued our command, we will get a prompt asking for a password for the user we specified, in order to authenticate us. If the credentials are correct, we will be shown a command-line, that of our server we just got into.



SSH and John the Ripper

As we’ve already mentioned, we can use john to crack private key passwords of our id_rsa files. If our target has configured key-based authentication – which just means they are using their private key – id_rsa – as their key to authenticate against the server and to log in using SSH. Since this will generally require a password, we can once again use John to help us crack that password, so that we can authenticate over the SSH (by the usage of the said key).

Another tool (as zip2john, and rar2john previously – sound familiar?) john leverages, is a tool called ssh2john. The logic remains the same – ssh2john converts the id_rsa key to a hash that John can work with. The syntax is virtually the same as before:

ssh2john [id_rsa_file] > [output_file]

ssh2john – command to call our converter tool

id_rsa_file – path to our file that we want to convert to a hash

output_file – here, we will store our output e.g. the hash that we’ve created

One small thing of note, before we look at our example. If your terminal tells you that ssh2john can’t be found (command not found – meaning ssh2john is not installed – like in the image below)


Please note that you can still use ssh2john.py, which is basically the same thing, wrapped inside a Python script. Usually, ssh2john.py is located in /opt/john/ssh2john.py or, in case you’re using Kali, you can find it in /usr/share/john/ssh2john.py. Just remember to invoke your Python scripts by adding python/python3 to your command line first. (as shown in the image below)


This also brings us to our example.

In order to do the cracking, we’ve first created a new private/public key-pair using ssh-keygen (image below)


(Spoiler alert! We’ve used the passphrase banana)

All that’s left now is to do some john magic.

First, we run our Python version of the ssh2john conversion tool – as shown below (which is the same image as above)


Simply, we’ve asked Python to run the script called ssh2john, which can be found in the /usr/share/john/ssh2john.py path… again, if you’re not on Kali, this would be /opt/john/ssh2john.py, and then we’ve given the path to our newly created (banana-protected) private key – /root/.ssh/id_rsa – which we’ve redirected to an output file on our Desktop, called KeyHash.txt.

Now we are ready, and should have all we need in order for John to crack our private key password for us.

We invoke John, using our trusty rockyou.txt wordlist, and let it do its thing:

 

Lo and behold, 29 seconds after, John has returned to us with the correct output – banana, cracking our password successfully!

Custom Rules

Similarly to the single crack mode that we’ve covered in part 2 of our series (word mangling, or variations of a word, where we change the letters to capital letters, numbers, etc.) we can also define our own sets of rules in similar fashion. John will then use our newly created rules to create passwords. This can be quite useful if we know (or suspect) the password structure of whatever it is that we’re attacking.

With this we can integrate capital letters, numbers, symbols… same as for the single crack mode. Also, this can prove to be rather useful for us, since organizations sometimes enforce password policies in order for them to be a bit less susceptible to dictionary attacks.

This is exactly what an attacker might leverage to their advantage! As we all know people tend to make similar passwords, or even reuse them, and adding numbers and capital letters, or symbols can make it so they meet the password policy’s requirement (complexity). Still, Babyblue1! is not an example of a secure password by any means!

So, if an attacker knew about the password structure, used a bit of Social Engineering on the target they’ve picked (some employee of the company perhaps), they could then easily connect the dots and compromise the system – gain a foothold into your now compromised organization.

Password rules are usually located in the /etc/john path, in a file called john.conf. Another path could be /opt/john.

To create our rule, the first line is used to create a name for the rule, which we can later invoke with John. It looks something like this: 

[List.rules:Babyblue]

Then, we need to use a regex style pattern in order to define our rule further:

A0 – prepends the word with characters we defined

c – capitalization of the character (position based!)

Az – appends the word with any characters we defined

u – convert to uppercase

Now we just need to decide where and what we want to be changed. To define what’s going to be prepended or appended, we put that in square brackets [] – in the order of usage!

We end up with something similar to this:

cAz”[0-9] [!@%$]”

After that, all that’s left is to add our rule to our usual command, by adding this flag: –rule=Babyblue.

We would end with a command like this:

john –wordlist=/usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt –rule=Babyblue target_file_path

Of course, there are many resources out there, and we would suggest first checking out these two, if all this talk about custom rules has piqued your interest.

Conclusion

Some finishing thoughts before we close out this series about John the Ripper. As we’ve seen from some of our examples and stuff that what was mentioned in the series, John offers a lot of flexibility and versatility, but, as always, in order to leverage this great tool to its maximum potential, there’s a lot of ground to be covered – this does not mean you need a PhD in Cryptography, of course, just a lot of trial and error!

We wish you happy (& safe) password cracking!

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 VRX
VRX is a consolidated vulnerability management platform that protects assets in real time. Its rich, integrated features efficiently pinpoint and remediate the largest risks to your cyber infrastructure. Resolve the most pressing threats with efficient automation features and precise contextual analysis.