Cyber Hygiene
Think of cyber hygiene as the routine practices and habits that individuals and organizations adopt to maintain the health and security of their digital lives and assets. Just like personal hygiene helps prevent physical illness, good cyber hygiene helps prevent cyberattacks, data breaches, and other security incidents.
In cybersecurity, cyber hygiene encompasses a wide range of proactive measures focused on minimizing vulnerabilities and mitigating risks. It's about consistently applying basic security principles in everyday online activities.
Here's a more detailed breakdown of what cyber hygiene entails:
For Individuals:
Strong Password Practices: This includes using strong, unique passwords for different accounts, changing them regularly, and considering password managers to handle complexity and securely store passwords. Avoid easily guessable information and personal details.
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Enabling MFA whenever available adds an extra layer of security beyond just a password. This typically involves a second verification method, like a code from a mobile app or a biometric scan.
Software Updates: It is crucial to regularly update operating systems, web browsers, applications, and security software (like antivirus). Updates often include patches for known security vulnerabilities that cybercriminals can exploit.
Careful Email and Link Handling: To prevent phishing attacks and malware infections, it is vital to be cautious about opening suspicious emails, clicking on unfamiliar links, and downloading attachments from unknown senders.
Secure Browsing Habits: This involves being mindful of the websites visited, avoiding suspicious or unencrypted (HTTP) sites when entering sensitive information, and using secure search engines.
Device Security: Protecting devices with strong passwords or biometric locks, enabling "find my device" features, and being cautious about connecting to public Wi-Fi networks are essential to personal cyber hygiene. Using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) on public Wi-Fi can add an extra layer of security.
Data Backup: Regularly backing up essential data to a separate, secure location (either offline or in a reputable cloud service) ensures that information can be recovered in case of data loss due to hardware failure, ransomware, or other incidents.
Privacy Settings: Reviewing and adjusting privacy settings on social media and other online platforms helps control the personal information shared and limits potential exposure.
Awareness and Education: Staying informed about common cyber threats, scams, and best practices is an ongoing aspect of good cyber hygiene.
For Organizations:
Organizations need to implement cyber hygiene practices at scale, which includes many of the individual practices but with a broader scope and formal policies:
Asset Management: Knowing what hardware, software, and data assets exist is fundamental to securing them. This includes regular inventory and tracking.
Vulnerability Management: Regularly scanning for and patching security vulnerabilities in systems and applications is a critical organizational practice.
Access Control: Implementing the principle of least privilege, where users only have the necessary access to perform their job functions, limits the potential damage from compromised accounts.
Network Security: Implementing firewalls, intrusion detection/prevention systems, and network segmentation helps control traffic and prevent unauthorized access.
Endpoint Security: It is essential to deploy and manage antivirus, anti-malware, and endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions on all devices connected to the network.
Data Security and Encryption: Implementing policies and technologies to protect sensitive data, both in transit and at rest, including encryption, data loss prevention (DLP) tools, and secure data storage practices.
Security Awareness Training: Educating employees about cyber threats, phishing scams, social engineering tactics, and organizational security policies is crucial for building a security-conscious culture.
Incident Response Planning: Having a well-defined plan to respond to and recover from security incidents minimizes damage and downtime.
Regular Audits and Assessments: Conducting periodic security and vulnerability assessments helps identify weaknesses and ensure adequate security controls.
Secure Configuration Management: Ensuring systems and applications are configured securely according to industry best practices and organizational policies.
Cyber hygiene is not a one-time task but an ongoing commitment to security best practices. It's about cultivating a security-conscious mindset and consistently applying those principles to protect digital assets and prevent cyber incidents. Consistent brushing and flossing contribute to good dental health, and consistent cyber hygiene practices contribute significantly to a strong cybersecurity posture for individuals and organizations.
Think of cyber hygiene as the routine practices and habits that individuals and organizations adopt to maintain the health and security of their digital lives and assets. Just like personal hygiene helps prevent physical illness, good cyber hygiene helps prevent cyberattacks, data breaches, and other security incidents.
Here’s how ThreatNG addresses cyber hygiene:
ThreatNG performs "purely external unauthenticated discovery" without needing connectors.
This is crucial for cyber hygiene because it allows organizations to see their attack surface from an attacker's perspective, identifying potential vulnerabilities they might miss from the inside.
For example, ThreatNG can discover subdomains, exposed ports, and cloud services that an organization might have forgotten about, all of which represent potential attack entry points.
ThreatNG provides various assessment ratings, comprehensively viewing an organization's external security posture. Here are some key examples:
Web Application Hijack Susceptibility: ThreatNG analyzes web applications to find potential weaknesses that could lead to hijacking. This helps organizations improve web application security, a critical aspect of cyber hygiene.
Subdomain Takeover Susceptibility: ThreatNG assesses the risk of subdomain takeovers by analyzing DNS records and other factors. This proactive assessment helps prevent attackers from exploiting subdomains to host phishing sites or other malicious content.
BEC & Phishing Susceptibility: ThreatNG uses various intelligence sources, including Domain Intelligence and Dark Web Presence, to gauge susceptibility to Business Email Compromise (BEC) and phishing attacks. ThreatNG helps organizations strengthen their defenses against these common attack vectors by identifying vulnerabilities in email security and potential phishing targets.
Brand Damage Susceptibility: ThreatNG assesses the risk of brand damage by considering factors like ESG violations, lawsuits, and negative news. This helps organizations maintain their reputation, an essential aspect of overall cyber health.
Data Leak Susceptibility: ThreatNG identifies potential data leak sources, such as cloud and SaaS exposure and the dark web presence of compromised credentials. This helps organizations protect sensitive data and comply with data protection regulations.
Cyber Risk Exposure: ThreatNG evaluates cyber risk by analyzing domain intelligence, including certificates, subdomains, vulnerabilities, and exposed ports. It also includes code secret exposure, cloud and SaaS exposure, and compromised credentials. This comprehensive assessment enables organizations to prioritize and address the most critical cyber risks.
Supply Chain & Third-Party Exposure: ThreatNG assesses risks associated with supply chains and third-party vendors. This helps organizations ensure that their vendors adhere to security best practices.
Breach & Ransomware Susceptibility: ThreatNG calculates the susceptibility to breaches and ransomware attacks. This helps organizations prepare for and prevent these devastating attacks.
Mobile App Exposure: ThreatNG evaluates an organization's mobile app exposure by discovering them in marketplaces and analyzing their content for sensitive information. This helps organizations secure their mobile app ecosystem.
Positive Security Indicators: ThreatNG also identifies and highlights an organization's security strengths, such as Web Application Firewalls or multi-factor authentication. This provides a balanced view of the security posture and helps organizations understand the effectiveness of their security controls.
3. Reporting
ThreatNG offers various reports, including executive, technical, prioritized, and security ratings reports.
These reports help organizations understand their security posture, prioritize risks, and track improvement over time.
For example, a prioritized report can highlight the most critical vulnerabilities that need immediate attention, enabling security teams to focus their efforts effectively.
ThreatNG continuously monitors external attack surface, digital risk, and security ratings.
This is essential for maintaining good cyber hygiene, as the external threat landscape constantly changes.
Continuous monitoring allows organizations to detect and respond to new threats and vulnerabilities quickly.
ThreatNG includes several investigation modules that provide in-depth information about an organization's external attack surface. Here are a few examples:
Domain Intelligence: This module provides detailed information about an organization's domains, including DNS records, subdomains, and WHOIS information. For example, the Domain Overview feature shows Bug Bounty Programs and related SwaggerHub instances, which include API documentation and specifications. This enables users to understand and potentially test the API's functionality and structure. This information can help security teams identify potential vulnerabilities and misconfigurations.
IP Intelligence: This module provides information about an organization's IP addresses, including their location and associated organizations. This can help security teams identify potentially malicious IP addresses targeting their systems.
Certificate Intelligence: This module provides information about an organization's TLS certificates, including their status and issuers. This can help security teams identify expired or invalid certificates that could be used for phishing attacks.
Social Media: This module analyzes an organization's social media presence, including posts, hashtags, and links. This can help security teams identify potential brand reputation risks or social engineering attacks.
Sensitive Code Exposure: This module discovers public code repositories and uncovers digital risks, including exposed credentials and configuration files. For example, it can identify AWS credentials or SSH keys accidentally committed to a public repository.
Mobile Application Discovery: This module discovers mobile apps related to the organization and analyzes them for security vulnerabilities, such as exposed API keys or credentials.
Search Engine Exploitation: This module helps users investigate an organization’s susceptibility to exposing sensitive information via search engines. For example, it discovers the presence of files like robots.txt and security.txt, which can reveal sensitive directories or contact information. It also assesses the organization's Search Engine Attack Surface, identifying potential vulnerabilities like exposed user data or privileged folders.
Cloud and SaaS Exposure: This module identifies the organization's sanctioned and unsanctioned cloud services and SaaS implementations, potential cloud service impersonations, and exposed cloud buckets.
Online Sharing Exposure: This module identifies organizational entities within online code-sharing platforms.
Sentiment and Financials: This module provides insights into organizational lawsuits, layoff chatter, SEC filings, and ESG violations.
Archived Web Pages: This module discovers archived web pages that may contain sensitive information.
Dark Web Presence: This module monitors the dark web for mentions of the organization, associated ransomware events, and compromised credentials.
Technology Stack: This module identifies the technologies used by the organization.
ThreatNG gathers and maintains intelligence from various sources, including the dark web, compromised credentials, ransomware events and groups, known vulnerabilities, ESG violations, and mobile apps.
These repositories provide valuable context for understanding and assessing cyber risks.
For instance, the dark web intelligence repository can alert an organization to compromised credentials that could be used to gain unauthorized access to its systems.
7. Working with Complementary Solutions
SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) Systems: ThreatNG's findings could be fed into a SIEM to provide external context to internal security events, improving threat detection and response.
Vulnerability Management Tools: ThreatNG's external vulnerability assessments can complement internal vulnerability scans, providing a more complete picture of an organization's vulnerability posture.
SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation and Response) Platforms: ThreatNG's data can be used to automate security workflows, such as automatically blocking malicious IP addresses or taking down phishing websites.
Risk Management Platforms: ThreatNG's security ratings and risk assessments can be integrated into risk management platforms to provide a more comprehensive view of organizational risk.
ThreatNG is a powerful tool for improving cyber hygiene. Its external discovery and assessment capabilities provide valuable insights into an organization's external attack surface. At the same time, its reporting and continuous monitoring features help organizations track their security posture and respond to threats. The investigation modules offer in-depth information for security analysis, and the intelligence repositories provide context for understanding cyber risks. While specific integrations aren't detailed, ThreatNG's capabilities make it a valuable complement to other security solutions.
