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    <channel>
        <title>ElysiumSecurity</title>
        <link>http://www.elysiumsecurity.com</link>
        <description>cyber protection and response</description>
		<pubDate>Mon 21 Sep 2026 10:55:07 +04</pubDate>
		<lastBuildDate>Mon 21 Sep 2026 10:55:07 +04</lastBuildDate>
        <language>en-uk</language>
        <copyright>Copyright (C) 2015 elysiumsecurity.com</copyright>
        <image>
      		<title>ES</title>
      		<url>http://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/logo.jpg</url>
     		<link>http://www.elysiumsecurity.com</link>
    </image>
    <ttl>60</ttl>     
<item>
<title>
MU.SCL S03E06 – Catch Me If You Can: Life After MFA and Zero Trust in the Age of AI
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post170.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Conferences.png" width="100" height="75">
Some security controls become so fundamental that we start treating them as certainties.
<br>
Multi-Factor Authentication and Zero Trust are two of the most important security concepts deployed by organisations today. Neither is obsolete, and both remain essential. But attackers, and technology, are changing the assumptions on which we have built them.
<br><br>
For the next <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/muscl/page_muscl.html">Mauritius Cyber Security Club event</a> we will look at two of those assumptions: what happens when attackers can get past MFA, and what happens when a perfectly authenticated and authorised AI agent does the wrong thing?
<br><br>
<b>MU.SCL S03E06 – Catch Me If You Can</b> will take place on Tuesday, 6 October 2026 6pm at the Flying Dodo in Bagatelle (Mauritius)
<br><br>
<b>Talk 1 – Life After MFA
<br>
Sylvain Martinez – ElysiumSecurity
</b>
<br><br>
Multi-Factor Authentication has long been one of the closest things cybersecurity has had to a sil</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post170.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
World Quantum Readiness Day: The Q-DAY Deadline
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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post169.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/169.png" width="100" height="75">
<i>NOTE: In this series of posts, we revisit recent presentations delivered at <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/muscl/page_muscl.html">MU.SCL</a> and provide additional context around the slide decks shared <a href="https://github.com/elysiumsecurityltd/MUSCL/blob/main/PRESENTATIONS/2026/2609/TALK1_ES-QUANTUM_v1.2.pdf">here</a>. 
While a written post cannot fully reproduce the depth, examples and discussion of a live session, it should help readers better understand the topic, the key messages, and the practical points behind the slides.</i>
<br><br>
Earlier this month, at our latest Mauritius Cyber Security Club event, I gave a presentation on Post-Quantum Cryptography with a deliberately practical objective: not to explain every detail of quantum physics, but to answer a much more useful question for organisations:
<br><br>
What do we need to do now to make sure that information which must still be secret tomorrow remains protected?
<br><br>
The presentation therefore focused</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post169.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
Rogue AI agents, who is accountable?
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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post168.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/168.png" width="100" height="75">
The answer to that question when looking at recent events, it would seem to be: no one! 
<br><br>
I have written several times recently about how AI is changing cyber security. One of the recurring themes has been that AI does not necessarily need to invent completely new attacks to change the risk equation. 
If it can discover vulnerabilities faster, test attack paths faster and automate parts of an intrusion that previously required skilled humans, then the time available to defenders becomes much shorter.
<br><br>
In July, <a href="https://openai.com/index/hugging-face-model-evaluation-security-incident/">OpenAI provided a real-world demonstration</a> of that problem:
<br>
During internal cyber security evaluations, a number of its AI agents escaped the controls intended to contain them, obtained access to the Internet and eventually compromised production infrastructure belonging to Hugging Face (other companies as well?). 
<br>
This was not a theoretical benchmark result or an AI </b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post168.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
MU.SCL S0305 – A Kind of Magic: Post-Quantum Cryptography and AI Agent Security
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post167.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Conferences.png" width="100" height="75">
Some technologies look like magic, AI and Quantum more than qualify to that group!
<br><br>
For the next Mauritius Cyber Security Club event, <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/muscl/page_muscl.html"> MU.SCL </a> brings together two fast-moving security challenges: preparing for post-quantum cryptography and understanding how weaknesses in AI agents can lead to real system compromise.
<br><br>
<b>MU.SCL S03E05 – A Kind of Magic </b>will take place on Tuesday, 1 September 2026, at the Flying Dodo in Bagatelle (MAURITIUS)
<br><br>
<b>Talk 1 – Post-Quantum Cryptography</b>
<br>
<b>Sylvain Martinez – ElysiumSecurity</b>
<br><br>
Quantum computers capable of breaking today’s widely used public-key cryptography are not yet available at the required scale. However, organisations cannot afford to wait until they are.
<br>The “harvest now, decrypt later” threat changes the timeline: An attacker can collect encrypted information today and retain it until future technology makes</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post167.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
AI Cyber Risk in Finance: The Ticking Clock
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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post166.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/166.png" width="100" height="75">
Over the past few months, we have written several times about how AI may affect cyber security. In our previous blog post <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post157.html"> Infinite Zero Day Machine, so what?</a>, our view was that AI did not suddenly make our existing defences obsolete. In <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post159.html"> Patching Faster Than Your Shadow?</a>, we looked at the more immediate problem: AI is reducing the time between a vulnerability being disclosed and attackers being able to exploit it.
<br><br>
The IMF (International Monetary Fund) has now published a Note titled <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/publications/imf-notes/issues/2026/06/29/artificial-intelligence-and-cybersecurity-in-the-financial-sector-576706"> Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity in the Financial Sector</a>. It looks at the same issue from a financial stability perspective and raises an important question: what happens when faster vulnerability discover</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post166.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
Cyber Security controls that actually matters
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post165.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Guides.png" width="100" height="75">
<i>
NOTE: In this series of posts, we revisit recent presentations delivered at MU.SCL and provide additional context around the slide decks shared <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/top-20-cybersecurity-controls-for-effective-risk-management-and-incident-response/287911461">here</a>. While a written post cannot fully reproduce the depth, examples, and discussion of a live session, it should help readers better understand the topic, the key messages, and the practical points behind the slides.
</i>
<br><br>
Cyber security does not fail because organisations lack frameworks, standards or good advice. In fact, the opposite is often true. 
There are more frameworks, control catalogues, maturity models, vendor recommendations, regulatory expectations and best-practice documents than most organisations can realistically absorb.
The real problem is not the lack of guidance. The problem is deciding what matters most, in the context of a real organisation, with real constraints.
<br</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post165.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
Cyber Resilience: From the Floor to the Board
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post164.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/164.png" width="100" height="75">

Last month, on the 13th May, I had the opportunity to take part in a panel discussion at the Security First Cyber Security Conference 2026 in Mauritius. 
<br>The event brought together practitioners, technology providers and business leaders around a timely theme: how cyber resilience needs to evolve in the human-AI era.
<br><br>
The wider conference covered several important topics, including AI-driven threats, identity, critical infrastructure, third-party risk, AI in the SOC, quantum resilience and the changing role of people in cybersecurity. 
<br><br>A recurring message was clear: AI is changing both sides of the equation. 
<br><br>It gives defenders new capabilities for detection, automation and analysis, but it also increases the speed, scale and sophistication available to attackers.
<br><br>
My contribution to one of the panel was focused on a more operational question: what really happens when an organisation faces its first serious cyber incident, and how can companies be b</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post164.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
Are You Human?
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post163.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/163.png" width="100" height="75">
There was a time when "seeing is believing" was still a reasonable assumption.
<br>
That assumption is collapsing rapidly.
<br><br>
Over the last year, the quality of AI-generated identities, voices and videos has improved at a pace that many organisations underestimated. 
What was once easy to spot as "fake" is now becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish from reality, even for trained professionals.
<br><br>
One recent example that circulated online involved an AI-generated French woman presenting what appeared to be a legitimate French identity card in a video generated by Grok. 
The rendering quality, facial movements, document reflections and overall realism were sufficient to fool many viewers at first glance.
<br>
At the same time, threat actors are increasingly using live deepfake technologies during video calls, interviews and social engineering attacks. 
Security researchers and law enforcement agencies have already documented cases where attackers used AI-generated voi</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post163.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
Ransomware: Inside the Criminal Enterprise
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post162.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Security.png" width="100" height="75">

<i> NOTE: In this series of posts, we revisit recent presentations delivered at MU.SCL and provide additional context around the slide decks shared <a href="../../muscl/page_muscl.html">here</a>. While a written post cannot fully reproduce the depth, examples, and discussion of a live session, it should help readers better understand the topic, the key messages, and the practical points behind the slides.
</i>
<br><br>
Ransomware is no longer just malware. It is now a criminal business model, supported by developers, affiliates, brokers, negotiators, laundering services, help desks, data leak sites and a clear operating process. That was the main message behind our recent MU.SCL presentation, "Ransomware 2026: Inside the Criminal Enterprise", which looked at how the ransomware economy works, why victims still pay, and what organisations can do to reduce both the risk and the impact of an attack.

<br><br>

The first point to understand is scale. Chainalysis estimates that ransomware p</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post162.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
Your Digital Ghost and why it matters
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post161.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Conferences.png" width="100" height="75">

<i> NOTE: In this series of posts, we revisit recent presentations delivered at MU.SCL and provide additional context around the slide decks shared <a href="../../muscl/page_muscl.html">here</a>. While a written post cannot fully reproduce the depth, examples, and discussion of a live session, it should help readers better understand the topic, the key messages, and the practical points behind the slides.
</i>
<br><br>
Most organisations still think of a cyber attack as something that starts when an attacker touches their systems. A phishing email arrives, a VPN login fails, a scanner appears in the firewall logs, or an endpoint alert is triggered. At that point, security teams start investigating and everyone agrees that something has begun.

<br><br>

But in many cases, the attack started earlier.

<br><br>

Not in a way that generated logs or triggered an alert, but in the attacker's preparation. Before the first malicious packet reaches the perimeter, the attacker may already know</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post161.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
Risk Averse Vs Risk Aware: a difference that matters!
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post160.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Misc.png" width="100" height="75">

There is a conversation happening right now in boardrooms, leadership teams, and strategy sessions across almost every industry.
<br> A conversation that has been recurring each time a new technology makes news head lines and is transformative: : <i>"We need to adopt (insert technology name here). We need to move fast. Security, please stop being a blocker."</i>
<br> Of course, at the moment that technology is AI.

<br>A few weeks ago I wrote about <a href="../All/post156.html">why organisations are rushing into AI and the risks that come with it</a>. 
That post dealt with the pace of adoption and the absence of governance frameworks. This one is about something different: the internal cultural dynamic that the rush creates, and one specific damaging idea that keeps surfacing inside organisations under pressure.

<br>The idea that being risk averse is the enemy of innovation (possibly) and that being security-aware (or conscious) is the same as being risk averse.

<br>It is not. And t</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post160.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
Patching Faster Than Your Shadow? AI and the New Vulnerability Race
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post159.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Security.png" width="100" height="75">

</p>
<div class="entry">
<p>
A few days ago, I wrote that there was no need to panic about AI and cybersecurity.
<br>
I still believe that.
<br>
But "do not panic" does not mean "do nothing". It certainly does not mean that organisations can keep doing exactly the same thing, at exactly the same speed, with exactly the same assumptions.
<br>
And one of those assumptions may be quietly dying in front of us: the idea that organisations have weeks to fix serious vulnerabilities before attackers can realistically exploit them at scale.
<br>
<br>
<b>The Old Patching Rhythm</b>
<br>
For many organisations, vulnerability management has historically been built around a fairly comfortable rhythm: scan, prioritise, assign, test, patch, report, chase, escalate, and eventually close.
<br>
That process was never perfect, but it was familiar. Critical vulnerabilities often had remediation SLAs measured in weeks. High vulnerabilities were sometimes given months. Only the truly urgent cases, the ones</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post159.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
Maybe AI won't kill us after all: a more balanced take on AI and CyberSecurity
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post158.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/158.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
The doom headlines write themselves.
<br>
AI creates infinite zero days. AI will automate hacking at scale. AI will make every developer's code a security liability. Your organisation is exposed. You should be scared.
<br>
And sure, some of that is true. We've covered it here before.
<br>
But lately, there's been a quieter conversation happening, a growing number of credible voices suggesting that AI might actually move the needle in the right direction for cybersecurity, over the medium to long term. Not instead of the risks, but alongside them. And that's worth talking about.
<br>
<br>
<b>The Infinite Bug Problem, and the Math</b>
<br>
Let's start with Firefox.
<br>
Last week, Mozilla released Firefox 150, which patched 271 vulnerabilities, many of them identified with the help of Anthropic's Claude Mythos. That's a remarkable number. Industry coverage predictably focused on the headline figure.
<br>
But here's the thing worth sitting with: how many vulnerabilities existed in Fir</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post158.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
Infinite Zero Day Machine, so what?
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post157.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Security.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>

Anthropic just released MYTHOS, a model trained to find zero day exploits.
<br> The security world is buzzing.
<br> But before you panic and rewrite your entire incident response playbook, let's ask the obvious question: does this actually change how you defend your organization? 
<br>The answer is yes, but maybe not in the way you think.
<br><br>
Yes, a model that can systematically discover zero days is genuinely significant. 
<br>But no, it doesn't render your existing security controls obsolete. 
<br> In fact, the fundamentals that have protected you against zero day threats for decades are still your best bet. 
<br><br>So what's really different? And what stays the same?
<br><br>
<b>The Hype Problem</b>
<br>
Zero days have always been the boogeyman of cybersecurity. 
<br> They're unknown, they're weaponized before patches exist, and up to know, often difficult to find.
<br> But here's the thing, you've never actually been able to prevent them directly. 
<br> Your defense stra</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post157.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
Racing to AI: Don’t Forget the Rules of the Road
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post156.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/156.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
Artificial Intelligence is moving faster than almost any technology in history. 
<br><br>
Organizations are racing to adopt AI, seeing it as a tool that can accelerate decision-making, improve productivity, and unlock new capabilities. 
<br>
Yet, while AI is a tremendous enabler, diving in headfirst without fully understanding it carries cybersecurity and data privacy risks, and mistakes are just waiting to happen.
<br><br>
To understand the potential pitfalls, consider a historical analogy: when cars were first invented, society still relied on horses and carriages. 
<br>Roads, regulations, and safety systems didn't exist overnight. 
<br>
<br>Imagine if, one day, everyone suddenly switched to cars, with no driving experience, no rules of the road, and no safety measures like seat belts or airbags. 
<br>The result would have been chaos (and it was in some part of the world with cars early adopters)
<br>
<br> That's essentially what's happening with AI today. 
<br>
<br>Organizations</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post156.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
When Microsoft Turns Against You: Hackers Wipe Thousands of Devices
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post155.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Hacking.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
Microsoft Intune is used by many organisation as a security/admin tool to manage endpoints, ensure they have the correct security controls, the right level of patches, only certain authorised applications, etc.
<br>
And, as well, when an endpoint/device may get lost, it allows the company/an admin, to remotely wipe the device for security reason.
<br><br>
So what could go wrong?
<br>
In March 2026, Stryker Corporation learned a hard lesson: attackers don't always need malware. 
<br>
By compromising admin credentials, the threat actors leveraged Microsoft Intune to remotely wipe tens of thousands of devices across the organization: laptops, servers, and mobile endpoints. 
<br><br>
The attack caused widespread disruption to operations, from order processing to shipping.
<br>
<br>
Who would ever need to mass wipe out all endpoints in an organisation besides a hacker? 
<br>It looks like Microsoft never asked themselves that question...
<br>Because not only is that option there by defau</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post155.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
MAURITIUS SECURITY CLUB IS BACK - MU.SCL Season 3!
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post154.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Conferences.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
After many years, we are finally back!
<br><br>
We are happy to confirm our new meeting for the Mauritius Cyber Security Club: MU.SCL.
<br>This FREE to attend meeting will take place at the Flying Dodo Brewing Company in Bagatelle. In there conference room upstairs.
<br><br>In this new event, the following two talks will be presented:
<ul>
<li><b>Talk1 - 2025 LESSONS FOR 2026 (Sylvain Martinez - ELYSIUMSECURITY)</b>: The first talk will provide an overview of the main security stories (horrors) or 2025 and what we can learn about them to make 2026 more secured.
</li><li><b>Talk2 - AI, ENABLER OR THREAT? (Sylvain Martinez - ELYSIUMSECURITY)</b>: The second talk will look at the latest news related to Artificial Intelligence, how it is used to enhance security protections but also used to facilitate more sofisticated attacks. We will also touch on what it may means for our future security jobs/roles!
</li>
</ul>
You can register for this event, for free, on the eventbrite website:
<b</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post154.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
Notepad++ and the joy of shadow IT application procurement
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post153.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Hacking.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
Last month the maintainer of Notepad++ published a disclosure that will make any developer or sysadmin uncomfortable. 
<br>For about six months, from June through December 2025, the software's update mechanism had been hijacked by a Chinese state-sponsored threat actor.
<br>Every time a targeted user hit "Check for Updates", they were potentially downloading malware instead of a legitimate new version, and the installer looked and behaved exactly like the real thing.
<br><br>Notepad++ is not a niche tool. It is one of the most widely installed text editors in the world, used daily by developers, system administrators, network engineers, and security professionals. 
<br>That demographic is precisely why it was targeted. In enterprise environments, these are often the most privileged users on the network. Compromise their workstation through a trusted update and you have bypassed the perimeter entirely.
<br><br>
The attackers did not touch a single line of Notepad++ source code. They</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post153.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
Apple's Spyware Alerts and 2025 closing thoughts!
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post152.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Hacking.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>

On 2 December 2025, Apple sent threat notifications to users in 84 countries - one of the largest single waves since the programme launched. 
<br>Not a security tip. 
<br>A direct, personal warning: your device may have been targeted by state-sponsored attackers. Apple reserves these alerts for situations where it believes a user is being hunted by well-resourced, sophisticated operators. Custom operations. Expensive. Almost always government-connected.
<br><br>The alerts landed in the middle of a coordinated disclosure by Google, Amnesty International, and a consortium of investigative journalists focused on Intellexa - the company behind the Predator spyware platform. Already sanctioned twice by the US government, Intellexa had simply adapted: setting up shell companies to infiltrate advertising networks, and deploying a new infection method called "Aladdin" that silently compromises a device through a targeted banner ad.
<br> There was no link to click, no file to open. Just an</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post152.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
Cyber Security Governance resources from the UK Government
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post151.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Guides.png" width="100" height="75">
<p> 
<br>Last month, the UK government addressed a letter to all CEOs and Chairs or leading UK companies emphasising that hostile cyber activity is increasing in frequency, sophistication, and impact. It also stated that cyber resilience is a critical enabler of economic growth and that organisations recover better when they have planned and rehearsed for worst-case disruption.
 <br>
<br>Although it references services and bills that are UK centric, there are some interesting points and information that could be considered and/or used in any country.
 <br>
<br>The letter asks companies to take three specific actions:
<ul>
<li> Make cyber risk a Board-level priority by using the Cyber Governance Code of Practice.
</li><li>Sign up to the Early Warning service of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) – a free service giving early alerts of potential attacks on your network. Your country may offer a national CERT service that is similar and if not but it could also be replaced with a</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post151.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
What the Salesfoce breach can teach us on Cloud/SaaS Security?
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post150.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Hacking.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
<br><b>What Happened? </b>
<br> The attack ran on two front simultaneously.
<ul>
<li>On the first, attackers quietly compromised Salesloft's GitHub repositories between March and June 2025, stealing Drift OAuth refresh tokens. Those tokens gave them persistent, legitimate-looking API access to the Salesforce environments of every company using their integration. Thousands of database queries were run in the background, pulling contact records, case data, and <b>critically</b> embedded credentials like AWS keys and tokens that had been pasted into support tickets.</li>
<li> On the second, attackers impersonated Salesforce support staff in targeted phone calls, tricking employees into installing a malicious app that granted OAuth access and bypassed MFA entirely. This campaign hit consumer brands directly.</li>
</ul>
<br> Once they had accumulated enough data, the group went public. On 3 October 2025, they launched a dark web site called: <b>Trinity of Chaos</b>, published samples of</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post150.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
ElysiumSecurity is 10 Years old!
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post149.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Security.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
<br>Ten years ago (5 October 2015), ElysiumSecurity Ltd was incorporated in the UK.
<br>At the time, it was simply a decision to build something small, independent, and useful: a security practice focused on what actually reduces risk in the real world, prevention where it's sensible, detection where it matters, and response that works when things go wrong.
<br>It also started as a side project! as Sylvain Martinez, ElysiumSecurity's founder, was still fully employed at BP.
<br>Sylvain had agreed with his management to only work out of office hours, at weekend and not for the big four or a competitor. That's why he focused on Hedge Funds.
<br>And a small but important details, Sylvain no longer had one early appraisal, but monthly appraisals!
<br>
<br>If you've followed our writing over the years, you'll recognise the themes: less theory, more practical and proven advice. The website tagline says "Cyber Protection & Response" and that has always been the point, help organisations s</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post149.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
Jaguar down, insurance regrets?
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post148.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Guides.png" width="100" height="75">
<p> 
On 31 August 2025, managers at Jaguar Land Rover's Halewood plant in the UK noticed systems behaving strangely. By the following morning, JLR's IT teams had confirmed an active intrusion. The company's response was drastic but deliberate: a near-total shutdown of its global IT network to stop the spread. Production lines in the UK, Slovakia, India, China, and Brazil went dark.
<br><br>On 2 September 2025, JLR issued its first public statement: "JLR has been impacted by a cyber incident." That was the extent of what the company said publicly. The attacker said considerably more. A group calling itself Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters - a coalition linked to Scattered Spider, Lapsus$, and ShinyHunters - claimed responsibility on Telegram, sharing screenshots of JLR's internal SAP systems and stating that ransomware had been deployed across the company's compromised infrastructure.
<br><br>As of 30 September 2025, production has still not fully resumed. JLR announced on 23 September that th</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post148.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
Oracle in Denial
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post147.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Hacking.png" width="100" height="75">
<p> 
On 20 March 2025, a previously unknown threat actor posting under the handle "rose87168" listed six million records for sale on BreachForums, claiming they had been stolen directly from Oracle Cloud's authentication infrastructure. 
<br>The data included Java KeyStore (JKS) files, encrypted Single Sign-On (SSO) passwords, LDAP credentials, OAuth2 keys, and Enterprise Manager JPS keys - the kind of data that sits at the very core of how cloud environments authenticate users and systems.
<br><br>
Oracle's initial response was a flat denial. The company told BleepingComputer: "There has been no breach of Oracle Cloud. The published credentials are not for the Oracle Cloud. No Oracle Cloud customers experienced a breach or lost any data."
<br>That statement did not hold. 
<br>Within days, independent researchers confirmed the breach. By early April 2025, Oracle had quietly begun notifying affected customers directly. The incident is estimated to impact over 140,000 cloud tenants acros</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post147.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
How to secure your mobile phone and check for spyware?
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post146.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Guides.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
<br>To effectively detect if your mobile phone has been compromised or infected with spyware, as well as to secure it from potential future attacks, it is important to follow some security best practices. 
<br>Below, we will cover a thorough guide aimed at personal and work phones, which are often unprotected compared to corporate laptops with more advanced security tools (EDR/XDR) which are not often found on mobile phones.
<br>
<br>
<ol type="1">
<u><b><li>Detecting potential compromise on your Mobile device</li></b></u>
	<ol type="a"> 
	<li> Review device configuration: </li>
		Regularly inspect your phone's system settings and installed apps. Look for any configurations or applications that seem unfamiliar or that you did not intentionally set up.
		<ul>
			<li> Installed Apps: Unrecognized applications, especially those in foreign languages or from unknown developers, could indicate potential spyware. If you discover suspicious apps, consider a full device reset. </li>
			<li></b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post146.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
Can a pen and paper really save you from a Cyber Incident?
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post145.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Hacking.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
<br>We all know the adage: 
<br>It is not a question of "IF" you will be hacked, but "WHEN".
<br>
<br>This is true for all companies in all industries.
<br>
<br>The ultimate answer to this problem is, to quote a famous French film:
<br> "What is important is not the fall, but the landing." (*)
<br>
<br>However, when speaking to upper management about cyber risks and the cost to implement remediation or prevention security controls, the answer we often get is a "Don't worry, we will be fine. We can just operate manually with pen and paper until we fix everything again”. 
<br>
<br>It might be true for (very few) companies, but the reality is unfortunately often much more complicated than that.
<br>
<br>A recent example is a cyber-attack that occurred in the Indian Ocean region this week:
<br>Leal Réunion, a car dealership on the Réunion island, got attacked by a hacker group.
<br>This attack is impacting their ability to use their IT systems and some sensitive financial informati</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post145.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
BUGS Package updated to version 4.1.3
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post144.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Cryptography.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
Following our renewal support for the <a href="https://elysiumsecurity.com/crypto/page_crypto.html">BUGS cryptography project</a>, it came to our attention there was some compiling issues on newer linux systems (i.e.: the latest version of Debian/Kali Linux)
<br>
This is due to a change in GCC where the default behaviour related to global variable is stricter. Therefore, we have updated the BUGS Unix package to version 4.1.3 and it can now be compiled on newer Linux systems.
<br>
You can download it from our local <a href="https://elysiumsecurity.com/crypto/page_download.html"> BUGS Download page </a>
<br>
Or it can also be downloaded from our <a href="https://github.com/elysiumsecurityltd/BUGS"> GITHUB project page</a>
<br>

</p>
</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post144.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
A Generic Incident Playbook
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post143.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Guides.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
Following the work started last year, we have now published a generic incident playbook that should be useful in any type of cyber incident and get your started on how to respond efficiently and rapidly
<br>
It is part of the wider set of incident playbooks (17 of them) and is available as a standalone 2x pages PDF on our github page:
<br>
<a href="https://github.com/elysiumsecurityltd/IRM/tree/master/ENGLISH"> ELYSIUMSECURITY Github Incident Playbook page </a>
<br>

</p>
</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post143.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
Log4j vulnerability information and 4x steps to prioritise
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post142.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Security.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
The aim of this article is to provide some core information about the log4j vulnerability which has been generating a lot of noise in the last few days as well as a list of 4x steps we are recommending based on advice from government agencies and security groups we are a member of. 
<br>This vulnerability is serious as it affects a very wide range of devices (CISCO, Checkpoint etc) and applications/services (Vmware vcenter, Apache based website, sentinel one, etc). 
<br><br>
It has a CVSS score of 10/10 (critical), the worse possible and allows unauthenticated remote code execution: <a href="https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2021-44228">CVE-2021-44228</a>
 <br><br>
The vulnerability affects applications running all​ versions of log4j before version 2.15.0 and is exploited by sending a specific text string that is interpreted by the log4j library
 <br><br>
The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has issued some guidance about it: <a href="https://www.cisa.gov/</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post142.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
Programming and Cyber Security
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post141.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Conferences.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
The <a href="https://www.pymug.com">Mauritius Python User Group</a> kindly asked me to do a presentation on programming and Cyber Security.
<br><br>
In this presentation, I provide an overview of why knowing programming can make you a better cyber security professional, a look at the most popular languages and some pitfalls to avoid.
<br><br>
You can find the slides to this presentation on <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/SylvainMartinez5/programming-and-cyber-security">slideshare here</a>. 
<br>
And there was also a video recording available on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g84piFtKOyc">Youtube</a>.
<br>
</p>
</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post141.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
The WhatsApp Privacy Question
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post140.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Cryptography.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
With Facebook recently changing its terms and privacy policy for all its WhatsApp users outside of the EU, it seems to have made a lot of people angry.
<br><br>
When it comes to (your) data privacy and what this update means to non-EU WhatsApp’s users, in the end, I believe it does not mean much difference to what existed before! and if you are ok with targeted Marketing then there is no need to do anything different.
<br><br>
Facebook/WhatsApp just put the spotlight on how personal information is being crossed reference and used for marketing purposes. It happened before but it seems more people this time around are more receptive about the implication of such practice and thus it is creating a wave of exode to over more privacy conscious messaging platforms.
<br><br>
Let's ask ourselves 3x basic questions about this situation:
<br> 
<b>1. What can WhatsApp see now?</b>
<br>WhatsApp cannot see the content of the messages sent through its platform (allegedly, but let’s assume t</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post140.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
Free Cyber Incident Playbooks on GitHub
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post139.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Guides.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
We are in the process of migrating our free resources/download to GitHub in an effort to facilitate the contribution from and to the cyber security community.
<br><br>
The first open source project we uploaded to GitHub is our cryptography project (<a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/crypto/page_crypto.html">BUGS</a>) and the second one is our <a href="https://github.com/elysiumsecurityltd/IRM">ES Cyber Incident playbooks project</a>.
<br><br>
Our Cyber incident playbooks project is based on the work done by the CERT Societe Generale (SG CERT) which is available for free, under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License, on GitHub. Our project uses the same licensing model and you are free to use the content of our document(s) as per the aforementioned license and with referencing the author(s).
<br><br>
This project provides a number of Incident Response Methodologies (IRM), also called incident playbooks, aimed at helping a company with the handling of different t</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post139.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
HOW TO PROTECT AGAINST THE NEW PHISHING ATTACKS GETTING AROUND MFA (CONSENT PHISHING)
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post138.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Security.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
<br>
There is a growing type of phishing attack which has been quite successful since the beginning of 2020, it is called a "Consent Phishing"<br>
<br>
Traditional email phishing attacks will try to get the victim's credentials through a dangerous URL with a fake login webpage, a malware attachment or some other clever social engineering tactics. <br>
Hopefully companies have some anti-phishing tools/technology to detect and protect them against most of those type of emails (some always manage to get through, no matter what technology you use and what vendors promise you!)<br>
<br>
However, there is a new type of phishing attacks that leverages the OAuth authorisation framework used by some applications to access your account. Basically, there are a lot of legitimate applications that will request access to your O365 account (it could also be another type of Cloud app provider) through the generation of an OAuth token, so they don't need to know (and store) your O365 password.<br>
</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post138.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
SOME CYBER INSURANCE CLAIMS IMPACTED BY COVID-19?
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post137.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Security.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
<br>
Below is a link to an interesting article arguing that cyber insurance claims might be affected by the recent surge of working from home, and especially working from a personal computer/endpoint.
<br>
<a href="https://www.darkreading.com/edge/theedge/will-the-pandemic-complicate-cyber-insurance-claims/b/d-id/1337663"> DARKREADING ARTICLE </a>
<br>
It opens up to a wider question as to whether or not the COVID-19 will have an impact on some (other) cyber insurance claims.
<br><br>
What we have seen from various online publications, specialised forums and discussions is a consensus towards the following answer: "probably not".
<br><br>
Taking into consideration what the above article is discussing, the answer is actually "probably not directly".
<br>As companies/employees are setting up new ways of working, most of the time in a hurry, consideration of the potential impact on their cyber insurance is probably not at the top of their list. 
<br>
<br>One possible way to look at th</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post137.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
FREE CYBER SECURITY TESTING FOR SMALL BUSINESSES IN MAURITIUS
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post136.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Security.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
Starting on the 6th of April, ELYSIUMSECURITY will offer a free service for the community in Mauritius. If you are a small business who has recently setup an online shopping website we can test the security of your website/platform at no charge and provide you with a short report on potential security vulnerabilities alongside some practical advice on how to fix them.
<br><br>
In these difficult times it is very important to help each other. More and more people are now looking at remote shopping online (we are!), so it is important those new websites do not get hacked and we can all continue to use those online services.
<br><br>
Below are the key points of this free service:
<br>
<li>100% free with no future commitment or “after sale” nonsense, it is our way to say thank you to all those businesses and services that help the community in those hard times;
</li><li>You will need to provide proof your own the website/service to be tested;
</li><li>We will enter into a simplifie</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post136.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
The problem with password expiry
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post135.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Security.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
When it comes to password expiry, different companies have different policies. 
<br>
Whilst the current industry standard is 90 days, a lot of companies do enforce a lower 30 days period or anything in between 30 and 90 days.
<br>
If you ask the users, they do not tend to be happy with changing passwords often and even at all (are you?) 
<br>
<br>
The problem with changing passwords often is that, unless you are using some kind of password safe with random generated passwords, users tend to just change a letter or number at the end of their password (1, 2, 3 or 2019, 2020, etc.), chose another weak password all together or write it down somewhere.
<br>
And if users do that, then changing their passwords often does not improve your security posture.
<br>
<br>
We therefore advise not to go lower than 90 days when it comes to password expiry, in fact when it comes to authentication security, we would highly recommend that you enforce dual factor authentication through SMS or App for s</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post135.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
Afer 17 years, a NEW BUGS Cryptography Package for Unix (version 4.1.2)
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post134.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Cryptography.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
BUGS is a personal cyber security project from Sylvain Martinez, which started about 25 years ago and has enabled him to kick start his career in Cyber Security.</br>
As such it has a special place in the heart of ELYSIUMSECURITY. <br>
It is an open source project where Sylvain created his own symmetric cryptography algorithm along with a few applications to showcase the capability of his cryptography algorythm:<br>
An application to encrypt/decrypt files, a simple encrypted chat application, a secure shell add-on, a password manager, etc. <br>
<br>
<br>
This project is a hobby and should only be seen as that, any respectable professional cryptographer would tell you this: "Do not create your own cryptography algorithm"! <br>
Furthermore, we always advise our clients to only use international standard algorithms (i.e.: AES)<br>
<br>
Having said that, it doesn't mean we cannot have a go ourselves! <br>
It had the merit of teaching us a lot about cryptography and after all, no one ha</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post134.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
2019 CYBER SECURITY TRENDS REPORT OVERVIEW
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post133.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Guides.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
In the past 6 months, ELYSIUMSECURITY has looked at 10 of the most popular Cyber Security reports of 2019 and created an overview document summarising their main trends and predictions. <br>
The results will be presented at the next <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/muscl/page_muscl.html">MU.SCL event</a> (free registration <a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/muscl-s02e04-big-brother-tickets-64519979997">HERE</a>) but you can already have a look at the main findings by downloading the presentation in the <a href="../../download/page_download.html">DOWNLOAD</a> section.<br>
</p>
</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post133.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
PHISHING PROTECTION FRAMEWORK
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post132.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Guides.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
ELYSIUMSECURITY has designed a practical framework to help organisations implement an efficient Phishing Protection program. <br>
Phishing has become the number one attack vector used by criminals to get around most companies defences and use social engineering to extract confidential information and conduct financial frauds.<br>
<br>
<br> For an efficient Phishing Protection program, organisations must consider not only implementing awareness and simulation campaigns but also integrate them to their phishing detection and protection strategy.<br>
<br><img src="../../images/posts/post132_a.png" width="800" height="600">
<br> More information on how to implement this framework is available in our <a href="../../download/page_download.html">DOWNLOAD</a> section.
</p>
</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post132.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
NATIONAL CYBER SECURITY DRILL 2019
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post131.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Conferences.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
ELYSIUMSECURITY was asked to participate in the <a href="http://cert-mu.govmu.org/English/Events/Pages/National-Cyber-Security-Drill-for-CIIs.aspx">2019 Mauritius National Cyber Drill</a> 
where we presented on Incident Response in front of Mauritian organisations that are critical to the operation of the country. 
We took this opportunity to introduce the core concepts of the <a href="https://csrc.nist.gov/publications/detail/sp/800-61/rev-2/final">NIST SP 800-61 Incident Response framework</a>.<br>
<br>
We also provided a high level view of the ELYSIUMSECURITY Incident Response framework, which is a practical implementation of the <a href="https://csrc.nist.gov/publications/detail/sp/800-61/rev-2/final">NIST SP 800-61 Incident Response framework</a>and the <a href="https://www.first.org/education/csirt_services_framework">FIRST CSIRT services Framework</a>
<br><br>
The updated presentation slides are available in our <a href="../../download/page_download.html">DOWNLOAD section</a</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post131.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
HOW TO CHOOSE MICROSOFT 365 SECURITY PLANS AND ADD-ONS: E3, E5, EMS E3, EMS E5, 365 E3, 365 E5
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post130.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Guides.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
Knowing what security features are included or not in the different packages offering from Microsoft can be confusing. <br>
In this article, we will explain the overall principle of what all of those plans means. <br>
<br>
For most companies, when it comes to Microsoft products you need protection for your EMAILS/DOCUMENTS/ENDPOINTS and for your ACCESS to Microsoft products (meaning AD, even if you are a Apple house) <br>
<br>
The bottom line is that for ensuring you have the best security you want all or some of those security features:
<br>
<b><li> Some advanced threat protection for your email/documents/endpoints:</b>
<br>URL Link protection;
<br>Attachment protection;
<br>Identity and impersonation protection;
<br>Threat Intelligence;
<br>Alert for suspicious logins or activities;
<br>Logs and archiving;
<br>Advanced search and discovery;
<br>DLP
<br>Digital Right Management;
<br>Encryption;
<br>MDM (phones and laptops);
<br>GPO;
<br>Etc.
<br>
<br>
<b><li>Some advanced threat p</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post130.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
THE MAURITIUS SECURITY CLUB IS BACK!
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post129.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Conferences.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
We are delighted to announce the second season of the Mauritius Security Club (MU.SCL) is now on! <br>
It has been a busy year for us in 2018, and 2019 looks open for some great opportunities.<br>
<br>
Please join on the Wednesday 27th of February from 18:30 (6.30pm for those english out there!).<br>
We will start with a talk revisiting how you traditionally use IDS into something more offensive when conducting Penetration Testing or Red Team exercises.<br>
This will be followed by a discussion where it is your chance to shape the content of the MU.SCL for 2019! You can register here: <a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/muscl-s02e01-starting-again-tickets-56052954897"> EVENTBRITE REGISTRATION </a>
<br>
</p>
</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post129.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
ELYSIUMSECURITY LTD MAURITIUS IS ONE YEAR OLD!
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post128.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Misc.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
What started in 2015 in the UK as a side project, to provide cyber security expertise to UK Edge Funds, has now developed in a busy and successful wider operation through a limited company in the UK and the setup of another limited company in Mauritius. <br>
<br>
ELYSIUMSECURITY LTD MAURITIUS is now one year old and the focus of 2018 has been to develop our activities in Mauritius. <br>
It has been an amazing year and we would like to take this opportunity to thanks our clients who have been trusting us in this first year. We look forward to continue providing our expertise in Mauritius, the UK and beyond.
<br>
</p>
</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post128.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
New Download section with Presentations
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post127.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Conferences.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
A new section has been added to the <a href="../../download/page_download.html"> Download page </a>where you can now find a link to all the public presentations ELYSIUMSECURITY has been giving.
<br>
Those presentations cover a wide range of Cyber Security topics and we hope you find them useful.
<br>
They are classified as public and you are welcome to re-use them or part of their content, we just ask if you could please reference the source of this material if you do so.
<br>
</p>
</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post127.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
FREE Cyber Security Event - 3rd Episode!
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post126.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Conferences.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
Special guest announced for the next MU.SCL event! 
<br>Dr Kaleem Usmani from CERT MU will be presenting on Incident Handling. 
<br>You can register now <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/muscl-s01e3-thank-you-for-your-data-tickets-44829970649"> HERE </a>!
<br><br>
This FREE to attend meeting will take place on the Thursday 26th of April 2018, from 6pm to 8pm, at the Flying Dodo Brewing Company in Bagatelle, Mauritius. 
<br>
<br>We are working on a streaming option for those of you who cannot physically attend.
<br>
<b>
<li> Talk1 - Social Media as a Cyber Weapon (Sylvain Martinez - ELYSIUMSECURITY)
<li> Talk2 - Incident Handling in Organisations (Dr Kaleem Usmani - CERT MU)
</b>
<br>
<br>
The first talk will present how information shared on social media platforms can easily be obtained and used against you. We will also take a look at recent world events and how this data can be aggregated and why this is dangerous.
<br>
<br>
The second talk will discuss incident handling in t</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post126.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
MU.SCL - Second Meeting for the Mauritius Cyber Security Club
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post125.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Conferences.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
Following the success of last month event, ELYSIUMSECURITY is happy to confirm the second meeting for the Mauritius Cyber Security Club: <a href="https://elysiumsecurity.com/muscle/page_muscle.html">MU.SCL</a>
<br> This FREE to attend meeting will take place at the Flying Dodo Brewing Company in Bagatelle.
<br>
<br>In this second edition, the following two talks will be presented:
<br>
<li>Talk1 - Introduction to ISO27001, GDPR, FFIEC </li>
<li>Talk2 - How to setup an IDS at home </li>

<br> The first talk will provide a high level overview of important Cyber Security regulations, standards and best practices relevant to most industries nowadays. At the end of the presentation, attendees should be able to take away key information and follow-up with any questions/worries/debate they may have on the subject.
<br>
<br> The second talk will be more technical and focus on how everyone can install an Intrusion Detection System in their home using Open Source software. This talk will hig</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post125.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
MU.SCL - The Birth of a Cyber Security Club in Mauritius
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post124.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Conferences.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
ElysiumSecurity is proud to announce the creation of a Cyber Security Club in Mauritius: <a href="https://elysiumsecurity.com/muscle/page_muscle.html">MU.SCLE</a>
<br>This Club has been created to help Mauritian IT Professionals to share information and learn about Cyber Security through an Open Platform and the creation of a Cyber Security Community.
<br>
<br>It is a free monthly event open to everyone , usually two talks of 45 minutes each with a mix of technical and non technical talks. Attendees will be able to ask questions, learn and apply practical knowledge as well as do some professional networking.
<br>
<br> The first event will take place on the 15th of February 2018, at 18:00 at the Flying Dodo in Bagatelle.
<br> Please  <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/muscle-s01e1-lets-get-started-tickets-42738232203"> REGISTER HERE </a> so we can have an idea on how many people to expect.
<br>
<br> We hope to see you there, for what should be a fun, friendly and casual event whe</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post124.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
FIRST Technical Colloquium 2017 in Mauritius - Our presentation on IDS
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post123.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Conferences.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
ElysiumSecurity was invited by the <a href="http://cert-mu.govmu.org/">Mauritian National Computer Security Incident Response Team (CERT-MU)</a> to present at the <a href="https://www.first.org/events/colloquia/mauritius2017/">FIRST Technical Colloquium 2017</a> which took place on the 30th of November 2017. 
<br>We gave a presentation on how IDS can be used both as a traditional defensive tool and also a more original offensive tool.
<br>
<br>The aim of this presentation was to introduce the attendees of the various free and Open Source IDS offerings and to highlight the benefits and key components of a successful IDS implementation.
<br>It was also emphasised on how easy it is to get started with an IDS both from a software and hardware point of view. 
<br>
<br>Below is a link to our presentation. If you want a more complete narrative please fee free to contact us for more information.
<br>We would like to thanks the <a href="http://www.ncb.mu/">Mauritian National Computer Board </b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post123.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
Today's Cyber Security Risk Context
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post122.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/122.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
In an attempt to make a wordy presentation slide into something more palatable, 
I created this infographic to illustrate the main contributing factors of the <b>growing attack surface</b> and <b>attack vectors</b> faced by many organisations today.
This contributes to an <b>overall growth of their Cyber Security Risks posture</b>.
<br><br>
<center>
<img src="../../images/posts/post122_a.png" width="800" height="600">
</center>
<br><br>
<b>ElysiumSecurity Ltd</b> can help your organisation with <b>assessing</b> its <b>attack surface</b> and <b>attack vectors</b> to better understand its <b>overall Cyber Security Risk posture</b> and the <b>remediation</b> steps that should be <b>prioritised</b>. 
<br>
<b>Contact us today for a free consultation at: <a href="mailto:consulting@elysiumsecurity.com">consulting@elysiumsecurity.com </a></b>
<br><br>
</p>
</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post122.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
GDPR and what it means to companies in the Indian Ocean and Africa
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post121.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/121.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
With fines for non-compliance of up to 4% of a company’s annual global turnover or €20 Million (whichever is greater), and applicable regardless of the company’s location (i.e.: Mauritius). GDPR is a regulation that can no longer be ignored from any companies processing personal data of EU Residents (i.e.: travel agencies, hospitality, banking, health care, insurance, etc.).
<br><br>
This article provides key facts as well as some resources to get started on the road to GDPR compliance.
<br><br>
---
<br>
1. Key facts about GDPR;
<br>
2. Relevant Definitions;
<br>
3. The route to GDPR compliance;
<br>
4. Going further.
<br>
---
<br><br>
<center>
<hr width=75%>
<h2> 1 - Key facts about GDPR</h2>
<hr width=75%>
</center>
The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a regulation coming into force on the 25th of May 2018. It is the most important change in data privacy regulation in 20 years and will have an impact on every key component of your organisation to conduct busi</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post121.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
Are Cyber Security Challenges and Opportunities in Mauritius and Africa different from Europe?
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post120.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Security.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
<i>
Spoiler alert: the answer to this question is "not really". However, the subtle differences that do exist are important to acknowledge in order to successfully implement or provide Cyber Security in those locations.
</i>
<br><br>
I was interviewed recently for an upcoming article about Cyber Security in a regional African and Indian Ocean magazine called <a href="http://ecoaustral.com/">Eco Austral</a>. As I answered the journalist's questions I wondered how different those answers would be if it was for a European magazine. 
<br><br>
In this blog article, I will first provide the answers to the four questions I was asked in the wake of recent Ransomware attacks that generated a lot of public attention. I will then expand on those questions and will be looking at the different Cyber Security contexts for those regions in terms of advantages and disadvantages to, finally, identify common opportunities and challenges. 
<br><br>
<center>
<hr width=75%>
<h2> PART 1 - CYBER SECURITY</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post120.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
When Business and Family priorities come together
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post119.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/119.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
A few month ago, when my child climbed into the boot of our family car at the airport and pretended to be a suitcase so I could take that “suitcase” on my business trip, it is when I decided I had to radically change how I was doing my job. 
<br><br>
As I am turning an important chapter in my working life I thought I would share part of the journey that drove me to first leave a stable and somewhat senior position for a large international company in the UK for a “glamorous” CISO position in a relatively small organisation on the other side of the world, in Mauritius. Then almost a year later, deciding to leave the safety of a full-time job and create my own company.
<br><br>
For 15 years, I worked for BP in the UK in various Cyber Security roles, life was very good, the benefits excellent, the job challenging and I forged numerous good friendships. There were little reasons to leave. Except maybe the prospect of a more outdoor family life in a sunny and beautiful tropical </b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post119.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
Cyber Security Planning - A simple 6 Steps Approach
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post118.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/118.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
Having a plan, or not, to secure your enterprise and respond to an incident could be the difference between closing down your company or seeing that incident through! 
<br>Most large organisations invest considerable amount of time, money and resources to define a Cyber Security Strategy resulting in several Cyber Security Programs and Incident Management/Response Plans. 
All of which are in support of a wider Business Continuity Plan (BCP).
<br>This results in procedures, documentation, backup systems, regular incident simulations and dedicated teams.
<br>
<br> As long as these initiatives are kept up to date and still relevant to the organisation mode of operation then it should help a company survive most incidents.
<br>
<br>By contrast, smaller organisations and especially start-ups tend to focus first on getting the "job done" and then think of what to do in case of an emergency or incident. 
<br>Their Cyber Security Programs and Incidence Response Plans are often limited to t</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post118.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
The 2015 SANS Holiday Hack Challenge Write-Up
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post117.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Challenges.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>

For the last 12 years, <a href="https://www.sans.org/">SANS</a>/<a href="http://www.counterhack.net/Counter_Hack/Welcome.html">Counterhack</a> offers a hacking challenge over the Christmas period. It is a great event, fun and with an increasing level of difficulty which lets everyone having a go.
<br>
This year, <a href="https://holidayhackchallenge.com/"> The 2015 SANS Holiday Hack Challenge </a> was built around a great <a href="https://quest.holidayhackchallenge.com/">8-bit retro web gaming platform</a> where you had to run around a virtual town to find the various hacking challenges.
<br>
The plot was centered around a fictitious toy, a gnome, that everyone wanted to have in their home for Christmas. However, two kids found the toy was "behaving" strangely and something was going on.
<br>
Through the challenge you will learn that the gnomes had in fact a hidden built-in camera and were transmitting photos to 5 super gnomes (servers) by connecting to free surrounding WIFI netwo</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post117.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
How to build an efficient Anti-Phishing Framework?
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post116.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/116.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
As our world reliance on <b>electronic connection and communication is accelerating</b>, cyber attacks are on the rise along with
counter measure solutions in the form of endless new cyber security companies, consultants, expertise, software and hardware 
aimed at protecting individuals, assets, corporations and even nation states.
<br><br>
However, even with <b>all the tools and increasing cyber budget</b> at our disposal, there is always <b>one constant weak link</b>: 
The Human element in the so called Cyber Kill Chain.
<br>It is this <b>human element that can defeat the most sophisticated defence systems</b> and <b>it is why the use of Phishing and 
Spear Phishing attacks are so prominent and successful.</b>
<br><br>
Those attacks <b>exploit human emotion, ignorance and credibility</b> to bypass defences in tricking users to <b>follow poisonous steps</b>:
<br>Clicking on links, opening documents, accepting/ignoring security warnings and good practises, installing software, etc.</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post116.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
How to build a Red Team and Why?
</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post115.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Conferences.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>

I recently gave a talk at the <b><a href="http://www.rantforum.com/event/rant-forum-london-october/"> Rant Forum </a> </b>in London on the topic of <b><i>
"RedTeam, why this is more than a buzz word?". </b></i>
It was an interesting experience and whilst different from traditional security events, as the crowd can and will interrupt you at any time, it was very enjoyable.
<br>
Many attendees asked if I could produce some "slides" after the talk. As no slides were used, below is a collection of notes from wich the talk was based on.
<br>
<br>
In this post we will explain what RedTeam is, how does it fit with other similar security services and what advantages does it bring to an organisation. 
We will also look into what works? what doesn’t? And where is this “new” type of service going? 
<br>
<b><u>1. DEFINITION</b></u>
<br>A Red Team is part of a trio of services which increases in sophistication: Vulnerability Assessment, Penetration Testing and then Red Teaming.
We will d</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post115.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
RANT FORUM - Red Team Recipes Presentation

</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post114.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Conferences.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>

I will be giving a talk tomorrow evening, the 28th of November at around 6pm, in London at the <a href="http://www.rantforum.com/event/rant-forum-london-october/">Risk and Network Threat (RANT) Forum </a>.
<br>
<br>
The topic is: 
<br>
<i> Why RedTeam is more than just a buzz word? What works? What doesn't? And where is this "new" type of service might be going? All those questions answered by someone who is actually delivering Red Team activities. </i>
<br>
<br>
Registration is free, you get free drinks and food... plus you get to hear me talk, so what is not to like?! :)
<br><br>
<a href="http://www.rantforum.com/event/rant-forum-london-october/">You can register HERE </a>
<br>
<br>The <a href="http://www.rantforum.com/about/">RANT Forum</a> is quite different from your typical free security briefing, for a start it is not a sales forum. However, the company behind it is a recruitment agency, so they are still interested in taping the UK Security professional community!   
<br>
</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post114.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
IDS used as a Network Forensic Tool

</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post113.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/IDS.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>

<i>Note: This is the second post of a <a href="http://elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post112.html">two parts</a> series on how to use IDS in a different way.</i>
<br><br>
Intrusion Detection Systems are traditionally seen as Defensive tools. They can however be used for different purposes than initially designed for as highlighted in the <a href="http://elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post112.html">previous post </a>, where we discussed how <a href="http://elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post112.html">IDS could be used as an offensive tool.</a>
<br>
The popularity of pre-configured/packaged IDS environments such as <a href="https://www.stamus-networks.com/open-source/"> SELKS</a> or <a href="https://security-onion-solutions.github.io/security-onion/">Security Onion</a> provide various software packages and Graphical User Interfaces to navigate through large volume of data by parsing/categorising/filtering it automatically.
<br><br> More importantly, such systems are starting to provide mo</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post113.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
IDS used as an Offensive Security Tool

</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post112.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/IDS.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>

<i>Note: This is the first post of a <a href="http://elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post113.html">two parts series</a> on how to use IDS in a different way.</i>
<br><br>
Intrusion Detection Systems such as <a href="https://www.snort.org/">Snort</a> and <a href="http://suricata-ids.org/">Suricata</a>
are traditionally seen as Defensive tools, and in essence they are. They can alert on security issues occurring on your network such as Botnet Activities, network based attacks, hosts/servers activities and vulnerabilities.
<br>
<br>
That last point is important. 
<br>
<br>
It is important because that same information used for defence activities, could be used by an attacker as part of an attack reconnaissance. For example, being able to identify a list of hosts that use outdated SSH/SSL servers, a vulnerable Flash Client or other vulnerable software/services; HTTP logs highlighting users web activities, clear text passwords, etc.
<br>
When looking at an IDS that way, it becomes a passi</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post112.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
Securing your Cloud Storage with a Boxcryptor alternative called EncFS

</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post111.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Cryptography.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>


Cloud storage providers such as Dropbox, Box, One Drive, etc. are increasingly being used for both personal and business reasons. On the Business side, often without the individual's company fully aware of what data is actually leaving their premises.
<br>
<br> One of the issue with storing data in the cloud is Security. Looking at Dropbox in recent years, there has been a number of embarrassing blunders which resulted in their customers' data becoming available to anyone who knew where to look. We did blog about it several times: <a href="http://elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post44.html"> here</a>, <a href="http://elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post46.html">here</a> and <a href="http://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post48.html">here</a>. Many other security blogs also related those stories, such as this nice summary from <a href="https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2014/05/07/dropbox-stumbles-over-security-and-privacy-of-secret-links/">Sophos</a>.
<br>
<br>
To limit the risks relat</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post111.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
 
How to reduce WEB 2.0 attack surface by going back to WEB 1.0, the dynamic way! 

</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post110.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/110.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>

The arrival of WEB 2.0 brought dynamic content through the use of technologies such as Java, Flash and PHP.             
<br>Consequently it also widen the attack surface. Websites became prettier, more interactive, easier to update and also easier to attack!
<br>
<br>The need for further functionality was, as it is often the case, at the cost of security.
<br>
<br>The four diagrams below illustrates the differences between a WEB 1.0 and a WEB 2.0 architecture as well as highlighting the increased attack surface.
<br>In a typical WEB 1.0 architecture, besides the physical, human and network security considerations, protecting the data is dependant of the Operating System and the application security layers. Typically, the application security layer is restricted to the Web Server (i.e.: Apache) if no other services/applications are exposed to the Internet.
<br>
<center>
<br><img src="../../images/posts/post110_a.png" width="640" height="400"> 
<br><b>Diagram 1 - WEB 1.0 Typical Ar</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post110.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
 
Website update

</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post109.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Misc.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
We have completed our latest website refresh and you may have to reload the various pages to see the new version.
<br>
This update brings more information about the different services we offer and how we position ourselves. It also provides better infographics which should make navigating through the site easier to the eye.
<br> We are planning another minor update to our blog section in the coming weeks which will improve your RSS experience.
</p>
</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post109.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
 
SELKS 2.0 vs. Security Onion

</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post108.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/IDS.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
I have recently been testing <a href="https://www.stamus-networks.com/open-source/"> SELKS v2.0 </a> which is an open source Network Security Monitor (NSM) based on an 
ELK framework: <a href="https://www.elastic.co/"> Elasticsearch </a>(search and analytics engine) <a href="https://www.elastic.co/products/logstash">Logstash </a>(log normalisation) <a href="https://www.elastic.co/products/kibana"> Kibana </a> (visualisation).
The NSM core engine is provided by the first "S" which stands for <a href="http://suricata-ids.org/"> Suricata </a> (Network IDS) and the last "S" which stands for <a href="https://www.stamus-networks.com/open-source/#scirius"> Scirius </a> (Management GUI for Suricata).
<br>
SELKS is provided as a live Linux distribution based on Debian 8 (Jessie) which is also installable.
<br> 
<br>
SELKS V2.0 is a great improvement from SELKS V1.0, so much so that I now consider it a serious contender to <a href="http://blog.securityonion.net/"> Security Onion </a> (SO) at</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post108.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
 
BlackHat Mobile Security Summit - London 2015

</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post107.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Conferences.png" width="100" height="75">
<p> 
In June 2015 I attended the <a href="https://www.blackhat.com/ldn-15/"> Blackhat Mobile Security Summit </a> in London, a 2 days event filled with talks from various researchers and security professionals, there was a 3rd day in the form of a workshop for anyone attending the <a href="http://www.interop.co.uk/"> Interop London hosting event</a>
<br>
Blackhat is historically a USA based event with its main conference taking place in Las Vegas every year, lately they started to host similar (but smaller) conferences around the world such as in Singapore and Amsterdam (which I blogged about <a href="http://elysiumsecurity.com/blog/Conferences/post6.html">last year here</a>).
<br>
<br>
This London edition was definitely on the "smaller" side and this actually had a few advantages:
<br>
<li> You could attend all the sessions as none were run in parallel </li>
<li> It was easier to mingle among fellow participants and speakers </li>
<li> There was less "walking"! :) </li>
<br>
The quali</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post107.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
 
Hackfu2015 Challenge 7 - Solution

</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post106.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Challenges.png" width="100" height="75">
<p> 
This is part of my write up from the <a href="https://labs.mwrinfosecurity.com/blog/2015/03/16/hackfu-challenge-2015/">Hackfu 2015 Security Challenge</a>. 
<br>
<br>The third and last challenge I solved was surprisingly very easy, but there might have been more to it...
<br>
<br> The instructions given were:
<li> An ELF Binary file: shipbinary</li>
<li> "Your mission is to analyse the executable binary and find a way to get it to run to its completion so that it ends up spitting out the access code for the ship's central server."</li>
<br> Below is how I solved that challenge:
<br>We first run the following command to see all the printable/ASCII strings from the binary.
<br>> strings shipbinary
<br>Below is an extract of the most interesting result from the above command.
<i>
<br>Enter Decryption Code: 
<br>burnthelandandboilthesea
<br>Code Accepted.
<br>Establishing Connection to Planet Abaddon...
<br>out.txt
<br>123.123.123.1 -c 1 | tail -1| awk '{print $4}' | cut -d '/' -f 2
<b</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post106.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
 
Hackfu2015 Challenge 5 - Solution

</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post105.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Challenges.png" width="100" height="75">
<p> 
This is part of my write up from the <a href="https://labs.mwrinfosecurity.com/blog/2015/03/16/hackfu-challenge-2015/">Hackfu 2015 Security Challenge</a>..
<br>
<br>The second challenge I solved was in fact quite easy because I solved a similar one for the <a href="http://elysiumsecurity.com/blog/Challenges/post2.html"> SANS Summer challenge in 2014</a> (where it took me much longer to solve the first time I came across this type of steganography!) 
<br>
<br> The instructions given were:
<li> An audio file to analyse</li>
<li> There is a hidden message in it, find it!</li>
<br> Below is how I solved that challenge:
<li> Listening to the audio file only produces white noise.</li>
<li> Looking for strings added to the file does not produce anything.</li>
<li> Looking for hidden data using stenography extraction tool such as steghide does not produce anything either.</li>
<br>
But, If you load the file in a windows software such as Sonic Visualizer, add a layer to show a Spectrogram </b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post105.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
 
Hackfu Challenge 2015 - Solution for Challenge 1

</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post104.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Challenges.png" width="100" height="75">
<p> 
<a href="https://www.mwrinfosecurity.com/">MWR</a> ran a <a href="https://labs.mwrinfosecurity.com/blog/2015/03/16/hackfu-challenge-2015/">Security Challenge</a> last April, unfortunately I only found out about it 3 days before the dead line! I still managed to solve 3 out of the 7 challenges and really enjoyed them.
<br>
<br>The first challenge was especially interesting, as I like cryptography. This was a tough one!!! 
<br>
<br> The instructions given were
<li> You are invited to a game of Poker but must find the password </li>
<li> You find a note with written "Pocket RC4"</li>
<li> You find a deck of card ordered from Ace to King with the following "couple" suits: {Diamond, Club}, {Heart and Spade}. This mean AD, AC, 2D, 2C....KH, KS</li>
<li> You find a note with the following written on it: "WEMUSTFOLLOWTHEWHITERABBITANHXJRAAZEBYYOMNWPBKGZOGY"</li>
<br> That's pretty much it! Below is how I solve this challenge and cracked the code:
<br>
<br>I used information on PocketRC4 f</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post104.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
 
One more update to the Security Onion Guide

</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post103.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Guides.png" width="100" height="75">
<p> 
We have updated once more our <a href="http://elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post100.html"> Security Onion Installation Guide </a> with a few tweaks regarding setting up BRO emails and SSH.
<br>
There is also a new PDF version, using an updated template, available from the <a href="http://elysiumsecurity.com/download/page_download.html"> download section </a>.
</p>
</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post103.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
 
Updated Security Onion Guide

</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post102.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Guides.png" width="100" height="75">
<p> 
Last week, Security Onion repository moved from Google Code to Github. We have now updated our <a href="http://elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post100.html"> Security Onion Installation Guide </a> with the new links.
<br>
Basically, replacing the base part of each link from the old reference 
<br>"<b>https://code.google.com/p/</b><i>rest_of_the_link]</i>"
<br>to
<br>"<b>https://github.com/Security-Onion-Solutions/</b><i>rest_of_the_link]</i>"
<br>
<br>
If you are looking for "issues", not only do you need to replace the base reference as mentioned above, but you also need to remove the "detail?id=" at the end of the URL.
<br> For example:
<br> <a href="https://code.google.com/p/security-onion/issues/detail?id=488"> https://code.google.com/p/security-onion/issues/detail?id=488 </a> (<font color=red>does not work </font>)
<br> Becomes
<br> <a href="https://github.com/Security-Onion-Solutions/security-onion/issues/488">https://github.com/Security-Onion-Solutions/security-onion/issues/48</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post102.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
 
How to setup PIWIK to track visitors' downloads

</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post101.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Guides.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
<a href="http://piwik.org/"> PIWIK </a> is a an amazing Open-Source Web Analytics platform which
 is a good alternative to <a href="Google Analytics"> http://www.google.com/analytics/ </a> as it provides full control to your data and more details (i.e.: full IP addresses). <br>
 You have 3x hosting options:
 <li> Use their cloud service. (<a href="https://piwik.pro">More info here</a>) </li>
 <li> Host it yourself online: at the back of your web server or on a different/dedicated server. (<a href="http://piwik.org/docs/">More info here</a>) </li>
 <li> Host it offline, and manually import your apache logs. (<a href="http://piwik.org/docs/log-analytics-tool-how-to/">More info here </a>)</li>
<br>
 The advantage of hosting it online is that you can use a php/javascript trackers within your web pages producing more information on your visitors 
 (screen resolution, plugins, etc)<br>
 It also allows you to do certain "tricks", such as tracking who downloads a specific image as <a href=</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post101.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
 
How to setup Security Onion on a home network with Splunk, email alerts and some basic tuning

</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post100.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Guides.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
<center> <b> Entry Last updated on the 11th of May 2015 <br> <i> a PDF version is also available <a href="http://www.elysiumsecurity.com/files/guides/esguide_so_v3.pdf">to download here </a></i></b></center>
<br>
<a href="http://blog.securityonion.net/p/securityonion.html">Security Onion (SO) </a> is a great open source project created by Doug Burks.
<br>It is a Linux Distribution based on Ubuntu and bundled/configured with all the tools you need to get a powerful, and free, Network Security Monitoring system (NSM). 
It can be used to monitor your network traffic for suspicious activities and malware.
<br>
<br> <b> This guide is aimed at people who quickly want to get started with SO with the following basic functionalities: </b>
<li> Getting an understanding of what Network and Server setup are required </li>
<li> Going through a basic SO installation </li>
<li> Getting basic understanding on how to tune Snort and remove false positives </li>
<li> Getting regular reports and speci</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post100.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
Fix for compiling VMwaretools 9.9.2 on kernel 3_18+

</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post99.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Guides.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
We recently encountered some errors when trying to recompile the VMwaretools on Kali (kernel 3.18) and Security Onion (Kernel 3.2):
<li>error: implicit declaration of function ‘smp_mb__after_clear_bit’
<li>error: ‘struct dentry’ has no member named ‘d_alias’
<br>
<br>Those errors meant it was not possible to share files between the Host OS and the virtual machines, as compilation was failing in the vmhgfs-only directory.
<br>
<br>Below are a set of instructions to fix those issues. 
<br><i><b>Please note the following was Tested with VMwaretools-9.9.2-2496486.tar.gz, and you need to do this as "root"</i></b> 
<br>
<li> In Fusion/VMWare select reinstall VMwaretools - This will mount a virtual VMWare CDROM
<li> Go to that CDROM and copy the VMwaretools tar.gz file onto your /tmp directory.
<li> Unmount the CDROM (you may not need to do this, but we did have have issue once with the CDROM still mounted).
<li> Uncompress the tar.gz file using "tar xvzf"
<li> Go to /tmp/vmwa</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post99.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
New Site Migration Complete 

</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post98.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Misc.png" width="100" height="75">
<p>
A new era has begun, we have completed our migration/integration from encryptsolutions.com to elysiumsecurity.com.<br>
Encryptsolutions.com was created in 1998, 17 years ago, mainly to offer a web platform and support to the <a href="http://www.elysiumsecurity.com/crypto/page_crypto.html">BUGS cryptography project</a>.
<br>
In this time our expertise has evolved beyond Cryptography and has grown accross multiple security areas which are reflected in this new website, brand and set of services</br>
<br>
Our commitment to the open source community is as strong as ever and you can expect more guides/tools/articles to be published very soon.<br>
<p>

</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post98.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
SANS Brochure Challenge Write-Up

</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post97.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/Challenges.png" width="100" height="75">

<p>Last Summer SANS organised a <a href="http://pen-testing.sans.org/blog/2014/07/22/announcing-the-awesome-new-sans-brochure-challenge">security/hacking challenge through 4 of their brochures</a>, each brochure had an &#8220;easy&#8221; challenge in the form of a hidden message to de-cipher to get a URL to the second level of each of the 4 challenges.</p><p>Below is a brief explanation of the steps I took for the main technical challenges:</p><p><a href="http://brochure2014.counterhack.com/Challenge-1-Level-2-A6C853E7-945C-4DEF-ADAD-B1F0D8D619CC/">1. Challenge 1, level 2: Alice&rsquo;s encrypted file for Bob</a><br />First you need to load the pcap file provided for that question into Wireshark, two type of traffic should catch your attention: some HTTP and SMB traffic. Doing a quick search (CTRL-F) for the string Bob in the &ldquo;packet bytes&rdquo; will get you to Frame 669, which is a web chat over HTTP where Alice mentions to someone that she needs to send a file to Bob and &#82</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post97.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
BlackHat Europe 2014 &#8211; Some Highlights

</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post96.html</link>
<description>
<![CDATA[
<img src="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/images/rss/96.png" width="100" height="75">

<p>Hacking conferences are a great way to learn he latest hacking techniques and more underground ways of thinking on IT Security. They complement nicely more corporate Security Training courses such as the ones offered by SANS.</p><p>They tend to be more chaotic, the talks are not as polished, some of the techniques discussed will have limited effect in the real world and connecting to the event WIFI is asking for trouble.<br />On the other hand, the atmosphere is buzzing with brain activities, convictions (right or wrong!), passion and cutting edge topics. If you can follow the rythme and embrace the moment then you will get out of this type of conferences energised and full of new ideas!</p><p>This year I attended the &ldquo;<a href="https://nuitduhack.com/en">Nuit du Hack</a>&rdquo; in France which runs other 24h, literally. You get some talks during the day, there is only 1 track so you get to watch/listen to all the talks. And during the night there is a traditional Capture The </b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post96.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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<title>
iOS Backdoors

</title>
<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post95.html</link>
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<![CDATA[
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<p>In the last few days there has been an increasing noise related to some iOS backdoors. Apple does not deny they exist, but contests how they can be used.</p><p>This is not new, and the security researcher who presented his findings did highlight that, it is likely related to methods being used by certain forensic software sold to law enforcement.<br />What is &ldquo;concerning&rdquo; is the following:<br />&#8211;          These backdoors are actively maintained and developed by Apple, how much more data will they allow to be extracted from iOS device in future;<br />&#8211;          Those backdoors provide access to SMS, Contact, and other potential sensitive data on the phone; they also allow to bypass full disk encryption. This highlight the fact that unless you phone is off, the data on your phone is no longer encrypted per say, but only protected by access control (PIN);<br />&#8211;          If it can be used by law enforcement, it can be used by &ldquo;greyer&rdquo; parties </b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post95.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Critical Infrastructure and Cyber attacks

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post94.html</link>
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<p class="p1">I recently came across an article on a UK newspaper, the Guardian, about Mt Kaspersky predicting a riot. Well, not exactly. He is predicting a major cyber terrorist attack on UK soil which will disrupt major critical infrastructure.</p><p class="p1"><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/may/01/eugene-kaspersky-major-cyberterrorist-attack-uk">http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/may/01/eugene-kaspersky-major-cyberterrorist-attack-uk</a></p><p class="p1">I find this interesting, not because it is new, it isn&rsquo;t. I find it interesting because there has been an increasing media visibility and attention to this topic in the last few years. By the way, I am also a big believer of &ldquo;it will happen soon&rdquo;. The internet of things is not a secure affair.</p><p class="p1">And I also find it quite a coincidence that Mr Kaspersky is warning us about a real life Die Hard 4 risk scenario as only yesterday I came across that following article:</p><p cl</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post94.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Heartbleed, do not panic!

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post93.html</link>
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<p>The security issue related to OpenSSL has been all over the news in the last couple of days.</p><p>It is indeed a very bad issue, one that can let an attacker access the login details, including passwords, of registered users from vulnerable Websites/Servers. Yahoo mail, was one of those sites&#8230;out of nearly a million others!</p><p>This vulnerability has been around for 2 years, it affects servers usingOpenSSL 1.0.1 through 1.0.1f (inclusive).</p><p>Those servers could be running consumer websites or other applications. For example, the Network Security Monitoring suit: Security Onion, was vulnerable until yesterday when a security fix/update was released. The same applies to the Penetration Testing platform Kali 1.06, which was vulnerable until today!</p><p>If those applications/environments were internet facing, userids and passwords may have been compromised in the last 2 years.</p><p>This issue allows the attacker to access the memory of a vulnerable server, it means that </b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post93.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Bluetooth under attack

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post92.html</link>
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<p>I have heard of Ubertooth for a while now and it seems it use to attack bluetooth devices keep growing. Once recent attack <a href="http://blog.lacklustre.net/posts/BLE_Fun_With_Ubertooth:_Sniffing_Bluetooth_Smart_and_Cracking_Its_Crypto/">described HERE</a> can leverage the Ubertooth sniffing capability to crack the encryption algorithm used by the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) standard. BLE is also referred to as Bluetooth Smart.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Sure, BLE/Bluetooth Smart <a href="http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/bluetooth-low-energy-it%E2%80%99s-not-bluetooth-it%E2%80%99s-better-%E2%80%93-much-better">is different from Bluetooth</a>, but it is<span style="line-height: 1.5;">supported by most recent mobile devices (i.e.: the latest iPads and iPhone as well as some Android devices), and will be increasingly used in &#8220;smart&#8221; appliances, from toothbrushes to fridge if you believe this </span><a style="line-height: 1.5;" href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-5739</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post92.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Apple Security in the Enterprise

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post91.html</link>
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<p>There is a good document from the UK government describing the different security features available in Apple Mac OS X 10.8 and the ones you should consider if using a Mac as an enterprise end point:</p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/end-user-devices-security-guidance-apple-os-x-108/end-user-devices-security-guidance-apple-os-x-108">OS X 10.8 UK Gov security guidance document.</a></p><p>In light of all the noise created by the NSA and GCHQ surveillance programs you might be tempted to dismiss governments&#8217; position and view when it comes to IT Security. However,I found that document quite good and high level enough to be understood by mid-level management at least :)</p><p>They do refer to an MDM solution for some of the controls without specifying which one, so I assume they are referring to a OS X Server Profile Management solution as described by Apple <a href="http://help.apple.com/profilemanager/mac/3.0/#apd05B9B761-D390-4A75-9251-E9AD29A61D0C">HER</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post91.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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A new look

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post90.html</link>
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<p>It seems I refresh the look of this website every 3 years and 3 years was up so here the new look :)</p><p>I decided to go with a slick, low maintenance theme.</p><p>It has also been a few months since I updated this website, hopefully this should change soon!</p>
</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post90.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Using a phone as a keylogger, next it will be a smartwatch!

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post89.html</link>
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<p>There is an interesting <a href="http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~traynor/papers/traynor-ccs11.pdf">paper from Georgia Tech College</a> describing a clever proof of concept where a phone is used to eavesdrop on keystrokes.<br />This is done by leveraging the phone motion sensor capability and placing it next to a keyboard. They managed to create a dictionary of words/vibrations that is able to recognise words typed on a keyboard just by analysing the vibrations made from typing.<br />Of course, you are likely to notice someone&#8217;s else phone sitting next to your keyboard but what if your phone got hacked and that software loaded onto it?</p><p>They conducted their proof of concept on an iPhone 4 but this is likely to be also possible on other platforms/devices.</p><p>In fact, with upcoming smart watches this concept will be even more relevant! Now I can see a use for that Apple M7 chip! ;)</p><p>As I am typing this note, my phone is next to my keyboard. Maybe I should move it away&#82</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post89.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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New iPhone 5S Fingerprint reader, a step in the right direction!

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post88.html</link>
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<p>Apple has just announced two new models of iPhones, one of them is the iPhone 5S which comes with a fingerprint reader. Like <a href="http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/526136/fingerprint_sensor_iphone_5s_no_silver_bullet_researchers_say/">others</a> I believe this is no silver bullet, but it is a step in the right direction in terms of helping the masses to secure their iPhones.</p><p>There are two main areas of potential security failures:<br />&#8211; Fingerprints can be copied and once compromised you can&#8217;t &#8220;change&#8221; for new ones;<br />&#8211; The Fingerprint reader security implementation will be very important, any defects or flawed could be exploited to gain unauthorised access.</p><p>Apple may not be the <a href="http://bgr.com/2013/09/12/iphone-5s-fingerprint-scanner-motorola-mocking/">first company</a> to provide an embedded fingerprint reader into their phones, but like it did for tablets and smartphones, it will be the company that will popularise it</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post88.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Mobile Device Management Limitations

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post87.html</link>
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<p>Current MDM frameworks, unless using some kind of container approach, will always play catch-up to hackers wanting to bypass the controls enforced to their phones, as highlighted in the following <a href="https://www.netspi.com/blog/entryid/192/bypassing-airwatch-root-restriction">article describing how to get around Airwatch&#8217;s MDM restrictions</a>.</p><p>The conclusion of that article is spot on:<br />&#8220;<em>MDM solutions are great for employers to manage mobile devices. However, they are not without their problems. Not only was I able to bypass compliance for having a rooted device, but I was also able to bypass the need to encrypt my device from the profileGroupSetting table. Bypassing compliance restrictions for AirWatch is relatively trivial after a few hours and I&rsquo;m sure it is probably similar with many others MDM solutions.</em>&#8221;</p><p>An MDM container approach will only ensure your corporate data does not leave that secured container and stays safe wit</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post87.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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The right (way) to disclose vulnerabilities

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post86.html</link>
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<p>An article was discussed last month in <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/jul/26/scientist-banned-revealing-codes-cars?view=mobile">The Guardian</a> and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23487928">The BBC</a>explaining how a research paper from the University of Birmingham had been barred by a judge from being published because it discussed weaknesses in the security related to cars starting mechanisms from many manufacturers (BMW, Porsche, Fiat, Peugeot, etc).</p><p>This was already discussed publicly at the <a href="https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity12/gone-360-seconds-hijacking-hitag2">21st Usenix Security Sympposium</a>, where an online video is available. A quick search on Google also produces a PDF paper explaining how a car can be gone in 360 seconds through hijacking car key transponders. If that was the paper stopped from publication, then I don&#8217;t think it provided enough details that warranted those legal actions.</p><p>Thi</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post86.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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iOS7 and Mavericks Security

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<p>There is an interesting article <a href="http://intrepidusgroup.com/insight/2013/06/ios-7-and-mavericks-new-feature-roundup-from-a-security-perspective/">HERE</a> that describes the new security features of iOS7 and Mavericks. It also asks some interesting questions that still need answering.</p>
</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post85.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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A story about Password: The Wrong Formula

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post84.html</link>
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<p>In this article I will first talk about some misconceptions regarding what is considered a secure password and then about how you can leverage different technologies to help protect your different credentials.</p><p>In the past few years there has been a sharp increase in websites being hacked and their users&#8217; passwords/hashes stolen, in parallel we are using online services for almost everything: to pay for your local pizzeria delivery or your electricity bill, access your bank account, connect to your work email, etc.</p><p>The common advice is to use different passwords for each site you register to, but most people don&#8217;t. It means that hackers can often reuse credentials they obtained on one website to access another.</p><p>One way to counter that risk would be to use some kind of formula so you remember a different password for each site you have registered to. This *could* be the best solution, as remembering a password formula means you do not have to write it do</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post84.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Evernote hacked, an early warning for the Cloud Storage storm coming?

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post83.html</link>
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<p>In recent years I have written various articles warning of the risk related to uncontrolled cloud storage solutions usage in the corporate world.</p><p><a href="http://www.evernote.com">Evernote</a> is a popular online note storage solution which is often used by mobile users. You could see it as a cut down version of Dropbox as it is more restrictive to what one can store online.</p><p>It got hacked a few days ago, as reported by <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/2/4056704/evernote-password-reset">the Verge</a>, what was stolen includes usernames, email addresses and encrypted passwords. We don&rsquo;t know what password algorithm they used and how hard/easy/feasible it is for the hackers to crack them, but the company behind Evernote now asks *all* its (millions) users to <a href="http://evernote.com/corp/news/password_reset.php">reset their passwords</a>.</p><p>This should really serve as a wake up call, to check what policies and controls are in place to prevent your user</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post83.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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A new iOS 6.1 hack

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post82.html</link>
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<p>As seen on <a href="http://thehackernews.com/2013/02/ios-61-hack-allows-iphone-lock-screen.html">the Hacker news</a>, there is currently a way to bypass the iPhone lock screen (iPad with SIM too?) running iOS 6.1.x
</p><p>I had to change the steps listed in &#8220;The Hacker news&#8221; slightly for it to work:
<br />-Go to emergency call, push down the power button and tap cancel.
<br />-Dial 112 and tap green and inmediately red.
<br />-Go to lock screen, <strong><em>by pressing the power button</em></strong>
<br />-Go to passcode screen, <strong><em>by pressing the home button</em></strong>
<br />-Keep pushing down the power button &#8230;1&#8230;2&#8230;3&#8230;seconds and before showing the slider &#8220;turn off&#8221;&#8230;tap the emergency call button and &#8230;voila!
<br />-Then without releasing the power button press the home button <em><strong>and let go&#8230;</strong></em></p><p>From there you gain full access to the phone application and can change/add/delete conta</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post82.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Mobile devices security, history repeating itself: Harder, Faster, Stronger but not Better!

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post81.html</link>
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<p>Following up on my SANS 575: Mobile Device Ethical Hacking course review, below is my take on the current state of Mobile Devices security.</p><p>First, let me define what I mean by mobile devices: Smartphone and Tablets, not laptops. Although laptops are &#8220;mobile&#8221; the level of security available to them is more mature and not in scope for this article.</p><p>Then, let&#8217;s dive into the past and where mobile device security fits.<br />Right at the start, when computers where used and interconnected, the security element of it has always been the last &#8220;add-on&#8221; and security professionals had to play catch-up. This was true with Intranets, where no or poor defences meant companies were often heavily relying on physical security, i.e.: no hackers will be allowed within the premises to connect their portable desktops. The realisation that staff could also be hackers and the arrival of laptops meant better IT access controls were put in place.<br />When Interne</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post81.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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SANS 575: Mobile Device Ethical Hacking Review

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<p>In the last two years I have been to a few SANS training courses: </p><p><a href="http://www.sans.org/course/advanced-computer-forensic-analysis-incident-response ">508: Advanced Forensic</a><br /><a href="http://www.sans.org/course/wireless-ethical-hacking-penetration-testing-defenses ">617: Wireless Ethical Hacking</a><br /><a href="http://www.sans.org/course/advanced-penetration-testing-exploits-ethical-hacking ">660: Advance PenTest<br /></a></p><p>Last week I attended the <a href="http://www.sans.org/course/mobile-device-security-ethical-hacking ">SANS 575: Mobile Ethical Hacking course</a>,<br />it is a nice complement to the 617 Wireless course and although there is some overlaps, especially around WIFI vector attacks, most of the content is different; and when it is not, you get another perspective for those attacks.</p><p>The course gave an overview of the different architectures surrounding the Android, iOS, Blackberry and Windows Mobile phones, how system and app updates</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post80.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Is there a bug with McAfee

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<p>There is something quite surreal with what is happening with John McAfee; the author of the popular McAfee Antivirus and who is rich, lives in Belize and has recently been accused by the authority to have murdered his neighbour. Instead of being with the police he has fled, arguing this was a conspiration and that the police (or someone) was after him. This on itself is already a bit odd, but his subsequent actions are even more bizarre&#8230;<br />You would think that someone who believes the whole system is corrupted would try to flee the country, but no. John McAfee is staying in the same city, posting a blog about his escape, offering $25K to anyone who can help him catch the &#8220;real&#8221; killer and even describing the numerous disguise he has used to approach his house and the police around it, doing his own investigation&#8230; </p><p>Well, at least it makes for an interesting reading!<br /><a href="http://www.whoismcafee.com/">http://www.whoismcafee.com/</a></p>
</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post79.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Boxcryptor, a great tool to secure your cloud storage solution.

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post78.html</link>
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<p>I made my feelings very clear about the use of <a href="https://www.dropbox.com">Dropbox </a>in the enterprise, through a previous post. I still believe Dropbox and similar other cloud sotrage solutions such as <a href="https://www.google.com/intl/en_US/drive/start/index.html">Google drive</a> or <a href="https://skydrive.live.com/">Sky Drive</a> are a timebomb waiting to happen for many companies who are busy securing their infrastructure but forget to look at the data leaving their premises through the back door. Or just not appreciating how tablets and smartphones are driving their users&#8217; behaviours and requirements.</p><p>There will be a lot of red faces if/when Dropbox and Co announce they have been hacked.</p><p>However, I have recently come accross a great tool that can help reducing the impact of such a bad scenario. It is called <a href="https://www.boxcryptor.com/">Boxcryptor</a>.</p><p>Boxcryptor creates an encrypted folder under your Cloud Storage directory (i.e.:</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post78.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Security Onion and seeing through HTTPS

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post77.html</link>
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<p><a href="http://securityonion.blogspot.co.uk/">Security Onion</a> is an Open Source Linux distribution that makes deploying an IDS/NSM a very easy task indeed and I highly recommend you try it at home. Especially since you can do everything in a VM&#8230;<br />
 <br />The video below gives a great summary of what this is all about (it is an hour long, but like any good movie you won&#8217;t see the time fly ;)</p> 
  <iframe width="474" height="267" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/mazSRVFYmLQ?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<br>If you have ever been through a Snorby installation yourself, you will appreciate this distribution even more as everything is done for you. The installation process only asks a couple of questions and you should be ready to monitor your network, analyse data through full packet capture within 15 minutes!</p>
<p>
 The latest beta is even better, and lets you use your own Ubuntu flavoured distribution if you prefer not to use the d</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post77.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Is that the holy grail for critical systems?

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post76.html</link>
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<p><a href="http://eugene.kaspersky.com/2012/10/16/kl-developing-its-own-operating-system-we-confirm-the-rumors-and-end-the-speculation/">Kaspersky Lab just announced</a> they are working on their own Operating System for critical systems.</p><p>This is something that is increasingly needed, but is Kaspesrky the best entity suited to produce such OS? To contribute/review it, certainly. But to drive its development? I am not so certain. I would have thought that developing an OS requires more specific skills than just security ones. One could argue that making security the core skill used in developing that OS should make it more secure but I would argue back it could also introduce performance issues&#8230; And performance is a health/security risk on its own, especially when speaking about critical systems such as process control environments.</p><p>Kaspersky Labs is engaging with different vendors and ICS operators, so they should get some kind of expertise on what their systems req</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post76.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Old tricks will always work&#8230;

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<p>There is something about deception, it can bypass a lot of security controls through a very basic principle, to make you believe about something that isn&#8217;t there. It is a bit like magic.</p><p>Like this <a href="http://feross.org/html5-fullscreen-api-attack/">WEBSITE</a>, where you can see an example of what the new HTML5 fullscreen function could make you believe. That you are on a bank website, where in fact you are on a phishing site. The previous link is harmless and only serves as an example, one I would advise you to try yourself (you can&#8217;t enter any details anyway in case you haven&#8217;t understood it isn&#8217;t really a Bank of America website).</p><p>Basically, they use the HTML5 Fullscreen function to recreate your browser TABS and URL. If you are not used to browse the internet in full screen mode then you would see the trickstraightaway. However, if you are following the trend to browse in full screen mode, especially on mobile phones or on MACs where app</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post75.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Distributed Credential Protection

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<p>RSA recently announced their <a href="http://www.emc.com/about/news/press/2012/20121009-01.htm">Distributed Credential Protection (DCP)</a> technology which should help address the impact of passwords leakage/theft when the system where they are stored gets compromised. They accomplish that by splitting up stored credentialsacrossdifferent systems.</p><p>In its current implementation it uses 2 servers. 1 server (BLUE) stores the password XOR to a random number and another server (RED) stores that random number.<br />When a user wants to authenticate it uses his password to XOR it with his own Random number. It then sends the transformed password to the BLUE server and the new random number to the RED server.<br />The BLUE and RED servers then compare the stored password with the one the user just provided. At this stage, I guess it must communicate to the RED server to get the corresponding random numbers.</p><p>This process is given an overview <a href="http://www.ghacks.net/2012/</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post74.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Wipe out/Factory Reset some Android&#8217;s phones

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<p>According to this <a href="http://www.tux-planet.fr/une-faille-permet-deffacer-un-samsung-galaxy-s3-a-distance/">FRENCH WEBSITE</a>, a major security vulnerability has been disclosed at the <a href="http://www.ekoparty.org/eng/">Ekoparty 2012</a>Security Conferencewhich affects some android handsets. It it is possible to reset those affected handsets to factory default settings and in the process wipe out all data.This vulnerability exploits a &#8220;secret&#8221; code that can be used to trigger the factory reset automatically, without asking any confirmation from the user. That code is:<span style="color: #ff0000;">*2767*3855#</span></p><p>There are different methods known to date to push that code onto those handsets:</p><p>&#8211; SMS in Wap Push mode (where the user would have to click on a link)</p><p>&#8211; QR Code</p><p>&#8211; NFC Protocol</p><p>Or&#8230; if users go to some websites where either</p><pre><span style="color: #ff0000;">&lt;frame src="tel:*2767*3855%23" /&gt</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post73.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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A Physical Solution to a Software Problem

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<p><a href="http://thinkst.com/index.shtml">Thinkst</a> is a small security organisation and one of its member recently published a post on their blog regarding the security of an encrypted USB drive. One of his friend lost the password to his USB <a href="http://www.freecom.com/files/Productinformation/ExternalHardDrives/ExternalMobileHardDrives/ToughDrive/Datasheets/datasheet_toughdrive_en.pdf">Freecom</a> Self Encrypted Drive (SED) drive and one of the protection in place was the need to power cycle the hard drive after every 5 bad attempts. This meant a brute force attack was impossible due to the time to plug/unplug the device.</p><p>Here comesingenuity, although the author call this a &#8220;lame hack&#8221;, I actually really like it as he thought outside the box (pun intended). He basically build a new controller to automatically power cycle the drive, and managed to find the lost password after 500 attempts.</p><p>I don&#8217;t do electronics and am always impressed when hack</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post72.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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MD5 Security Flaws

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<p>In case you were in any doubts about the security flaws of MD5, in recent days, 2 implementations of MD5 have been shown to have severe security issues.</p><p>1) The md5crypt password scrambler used in many Unix based distributions has been deemed as <a href="http://phk.freebsd.dk/sagas/md5crypt_eol.html?highlight=md5#md5crypt-password-scrambler-is-no-longer-considered-safe-by-author">&#8220;unsafe&#8221; by its author</a> (in fact this has been known for some time now).</p><p>2) <a href="https://trailofbits.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/flame-md5.pdf">MD5 collisions</a> were used in the recent Flame malware to bypass Microsoft Update signature certificates.</p><p>The sole use of MD5 as a security vector must be avoided.</p>
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An interesting timeline representation of the CloudFlare&#8217;s hack

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<p><a href="http://www.cloudflare.com">CloudFlare</a> is an interesting young company, a few years old, as introduced in this <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/cloudflare-the-startup-that-thwarts-hackers-01192012.html">Bloomberg article</a>. Although it is tempting to just describe it as being similar to <a href="http://www.akamai.com">Akamai</a>becauseit provides web acceleration and DOS protection through the use of a Content Distributed Network (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_delivery_network">CDN</a>), it is also different. As explained by its founder, <a href="http://blog.cloudflare.com/what-is-cloudflare">Matthew Price</a>, it can understand, analyse and protect all requests to a website, not just a subset. It also has a different price model starting with a free offering and generally being much less expensive than the competition even with its pro/business/enterprise options.</p><p>In a nutshell, CloudFlare appears to be a service that can help optim</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post70.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Flame and the DEB93D trail

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<p>In the last few weeks there has been a lot of noise about what looks like the latest State sponsored malware, Flame. You can find a lot of information about it from <a href="http://www.securelist.com/en/blog?weblogid=208193522">Kaspersky</a> and also from the <a href="http://www.crysys.hu/skywiper/skywiper.pdf">CrySyS</a> lab who seems to have done some parallel investigation and call it differently (sKyWIper).</p><p>This malware is quite interesting for several reasons:<br />1) It seems to focus on stealing information rather than being directly disruptive.<br />2) It has been active for 5+ years and has remained undetected until now.<br />3) It has an option to delete itself, but in doing so leaves one file. a ~DEB93D.tmp file.<br />4) It is modular and can/has been used to <a href="http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00002377.html">intercept Microsoft update</a> using <a href="http://blog-admin.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/06/flame-command-and-control/">fake certificates </a>t</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post69.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Apple in Denial

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<p><em>Note: Many of the security articles I have written about Apple on this blog are negative and the reader could think I do not like Apple. This is actually very far from the truth, I am a big Apple fan; but I am also a security professional and I do not agree with their overall security strategy.</em></p><p>The title of this post is inspired directly from an Article I read <a href="http://www.zdnet.co.uk/blogs/jacks-blog-10017212/apple-malware-flourishes-in-a-culture-of-denial-10025828/">on ZDnet</a>, discussing the latest security threat that infected an estimated half a million Mac with malware: &#8220;BackDoor.Flashback.39&#8243;.</p><p>Mac Trojans are evolving and becoming more frequent, last August a Mac Trojan (<a href="http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00002206.html">Bash/Qhost.WB</a>)was found in a fake Flash updater that once installed would redirect google search results to &#8220;bad sites&#8221;, then in September another Mac Trojan (<a href="http://www.intego.c</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post68.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Satellite phones encryption attacked

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<p>About a month ago, <a href="http://www.arstechnica.com/">Arts Technica</a> ran an article about the encryption standards used by <a href="http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2012/02/crypto-crack-makes-satellite-phones-vulnerable-to-eavesdropping.ars">satellite phones that have been broken</a>.</p><p>This is yet another exemple of a proprietary encryption system which appears to have been weakly designed and implemented.<br />Although they have only been able to break the communication from the Satellite to the phone and not the other way around, it should still be of concern for anyone using those phones to transmit sensitive information without additional security.<br />Even if the audio codec still needs to be reversed engineered, this should be the easy part of this attack!</p><p>Someone is likely to get a great PhD as <a href="http://gmr.crypto.rub.de/paper/paper-1.pdf">the paper exposing this issue</a>was co-written by such student.</p>
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Windows 8 Picture Password, great but&#8230;

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<p>After looking at the new features listed for Windows 8, one in particular caught my attention: The Picture Password Login.<br />It is a very refreshing approach to authentication!</p><p>You are presented with a photo at log in and instead of entering a password, you have to touch the image according to the &#8220;allowed&#8221; touch sequence you registered your user with. In some respect it is similar to the existing gesture based authentication mechanisms you can find on some smartphones (anyone remember that feature on the Palm V?!), but I think it is taken to the next step.<br />Microsoft is maybe trying to do to passwords what Apple did to the Walkman.</p><p>By providing you with a photo of your choice (i.e.: your own family picture), and a restricted number of gestures (point, draw a line and circle) it is easier to remember a sequence, more natural and more personal. For exemple, you would circle the head of your best friend, touch the feet of your child and stroke your dog&</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post66.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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John Nash on Cryptography

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<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Forbes_Nash,_Jr.">John Nash</a> is a famous mathematician whose life inspired the Hollywood movie &#8220;A beautiful Mind&#8221;. However, summerizing his life through that light hearted movie would be very inadequate!</p><p>So, this genius mathematician who worked in game theory, differential geometry, and partial differential equations as well as winning a Nobel Prize in 1994 appears to also have had some great insights into modern cryptography&#8230; back in the 1950s! </p><p>As seen <a href="http://agtb.wordpress.com/2012/02/17/john-nashs-letter-to-the-nsa/">in this article</a>, NSA recently released a series of documents related to letters/conversationa between the NSA and Nash in 1955, where the mathematician made an unsuccessful but noted attempt to communicate his own take on a crypto machine.</p><p>If anything, reading at <a href="http://courses.csail.mit.edu/6.857/2012/files/H03-Cryptosystem-proposed-by-Nash.pdf">the hand written</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post65.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Another iPhone hack, this time with a paperclip!

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<p>There is a new vulnerability with iOS5 powered device with a SIM card. I have tried it and it works.<br />You need to know the number of your victim and by combining a missed called, removing the SIM card, putting it back in and swiping the missed call alert it is possible to bypass the lock screen and access the phone.</p><p>Look at the video from the weirdly named group called iPhoneIslam, you need to get the timing right!<br /><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/Vhy9_bYVIwk" width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Vhy9_bYVIwk" /><param name="autostart" value="true" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /></object><br /><a title="YouTube" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vhy9_bYVIwk">YouTube Direkt</a><!-- generated by WordPress plugin Embedded Video --></p>
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Bringing Your Own Device, a Security challenge.

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<p>There is an increasing level of noise in the enterprise about Bringing Your Own Device (BYOD). That you like it or not, it is most probably happening right now within your company unless your are &#8220;lucky enough&#8221; to be able to enforce strict controls as to what devices are allowed and able to access your data.</p><p>For a true BYOD concept, meaning with no restrictions on what that device might be, there are only 2 possible way to enable it:</p><p>1) To allow network access to your data/application directly from any devices<br />or<br />2) To make your data/application available from the Internet, and the easiest incarnation of that is through web applications.</p><p>With the first approach, focusing on the network access, the positives are that you can have more control over the environment from which the data/application is accessed from. Such as enforcing a minimum set of security controls and quarantine non compliant devices. The negatives, though, are the need for a </b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post63.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Smile, you are being recorded!

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<p>The BBC has recently <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16919664">ran an article</a> about a hacker who has <a href="http://console-cowboys.blogspot.com/">published details on how to hack a certain type of webcam</a>. This story is interesting for several reasons.</p><p>First, it further highlights how fragile our privacy has become since we live in a digital world with details of our life being kept on the internet: personal blogs, twitter feeds, Facebook or Government/Health records, etc. All this data is available online if you have the right access to the system it is held on. But it is not just still photos or lines of texts, it can also be live pictures through personal webcams or state surveillance cameras. Again, that data is available if you have the right credentials. In this case, hundreds of Trendnet webcam users thought/thinks their live video feed was protected through the use of a userid and password, but a bug in its firmware allows anyone to access it by</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post62.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Koobface, The dangerous game of naming and shaming

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<p>There has been wide coverage of the naming and shaming of the supposedly perpetrators behind the Koobface botnet that has affected Facebook and other social sites for a few years.</p><p>The gang leader was first named on <a href="http://ddanchev.blogspot.com/">Dancho Danchev&#8217;s blog</a>, then the Facebook&#8217;s security team threaten and did reveal the gang&#8217;s real identity, the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/technology/koobface-gang-that-used-facebook-to-spread-worm-operates-in-the-open.html?_r=1">New York times</a> even ran an article on it and finally <a href="http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/koobface/">Sophos published another in-depth look</a> at how they also discovered their identity. In between, many other sites jumped in to share that information.</p><p>I am slightly uncomfortable with this approach.</p><p>It appeared to have worked in this instance as the bonnet Command &amp; Centre has been turned off, and it also appears they named the right perso</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post61.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Most websites are vulnerable to a hash collision DOS attack

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<p>By websites, I should really have said Web Applications, but the end result is the same: A server which is serving pages on the Internet could see its CPU usage increasing to a level making that server unusable for a few minutes or more. All that from a relatively small specially crafted malicious HTTP request.
</p><p>This vulnerability exists in most languages used to develop web applications: PHP, ASP.Net, Java, Python, Ruby, etc. And it has been known to exist in theory since 2003!
</p><p>Last week, Alexander Klink and Julian Wilde explained at the <a href="http://events.ccc.de/category/28c3/">28th Chaos Communication Congress</a> in Germany how exactly the theory became reality and the impact on the different web application languages were affected.
</p><p>The core of the issue is the way hash lists have been implemented in those languages. By &#8220;Hash&#8221; they both refer to a specific type of data structure and the cryptographic function. A <a href="http://en.wikipedia.o</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post60.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Encrypting DNS queries with DNSCrypt from OpenDNS

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<p><a href="http://www.opendns.com">OpenDNS</a> has just release a beta software to enable encryption of DNS queries called: <a href="http://www.opendns.com/technology/dnscrypt/">DNSCrypt</a>.</p><p>Not encrypting DNS queries can lead to two main type of attacks, as described by OpenDNS:<br />&#8220;<em>First, it prevents man-in-the-middle attacks which can cause malicious DNS responses to be used to trick you into visiting a dangerous website or send traffic to an unintended third party. Second, it prevents snooping by your ISP or any other intermediary who might want to sniff your DNS traffic to see what domains you are resolving.</em>&#8221;</p><p>DNSCrypt can significantly increase a user web security as until now there was no way to encrypt DNS queries. As stated by OpenDNS, DNSCrypt should be seen as complementary to Domain Name System Security Extensions (<a href="http://www.dnssec.net/">DNSSEC</a>) because the later is not use to encrypt DNS queries, but to provide authenticat</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post59.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Twitter helping with Android&#8217;s Security

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<p>Twitter has just announced they will be opening the technology from <a href="http://www.whispersys.com/updates.html">Whisper Systems</a> they just acquired. This is good news for Android users, and Google. Their technology allows text messages to be encrypted as well as providing full disk encryption, the later will only be made available, well, later!</p><p>This has the potential to bring security enhancement to the Android&#8217;s mass.</p><p>The source code is now available here: <a href="https://github.com/whispersystems">GitHub</a></p>
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My take on SANS 660, The HexFactor and Netwars

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<p>I have just attended the <a href="https://www.sans.org/security-training/advanced-penetration-testing-exploits-ethical-hacking-1517-mid">SANS 660 course in London</a>, it is one of the most advanced course SANS has to offer and it did notdisappoint!</p><p>Its bootcamp format means you will start your day at 9am and finish it at 7pm! The last two hours being called a &#8220;bootcamp&#8221;, basically 2 hours of exercises linked to the content of the day that really helps understanding the different techniques that were discussed.</p><p>Speaking about content, although they state that previous programmingexperienceis &#8220;recommended&#8221;, it is not, is it mandatory!</p><p>And for the last 2 days you really need some understanding of x86 assembly to get a chance to follow the fast pace. I have to admit that the last day I was lost after lunch!</p><p>But what do you get if you buckle up and go on the ride? You get an incredible amount of information as it goes into a great level o</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post57.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Carrier IQ, an interesting story of deception or what we could call the Facebook syndrome

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post56.html</link>
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</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post56.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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A job at GCHQ?

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post55.html</link>
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<p>If you ever wanted to work for a UK secret intelligence organisation, <a href="http://www.gchq.gov.uk/Pages/homepage.aspx">GCHQ</a>, they are running a contest until the 11th of December, where you need to decipher some code to get a password. Once submitted, that password will redirect you to their recruitment website.</p><p>The password is probably &#8220;ifyoudon&#8217;twanttoworkforuswewillfindyou&#8221;&#8230;</p><p>If you fancy your chances, here is the site:<a href="http://www.canyoucrackit.co.uk/">http://www.canyoucrackit.co.uk/</a></p>
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Next Generation Firewall

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post54.html</link>
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<p>There is a good article on <a href="http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/security/next-generation-firewalls-its-all-about-tuples/6969?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+techrepublic%2Fsecurity+%28TechRepublic+Security+Update%29">TECHNET</a> on Next Generation Firewall (NGF) and the fact that most, if not all, companies accept port 80 in/out meaning traditional F/W are less and less effective against malware using this port as a mean to call home or come in.</p><p>The Article nicely summerize the need to look for more than IP/PORT/PROTOCOL but also for the type of Payload going through.</p><p>Although not a new technology, the evolution of Malware is a growing issue which makes that technology more and more relevant.</p>
</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post54.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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iOS 5 Vulnerabilities for iPad2 and iPhone 4S

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post53.html</link>
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<p>Two vulnerabilities in iOS5 have recently been discovered, one is affecting the iPad2 and the other the new iPhone 4S. In both cases it allows anyone to bypass any lock/passcode to gain unauthorised access to the device.</p><p><strong>1) iPad 2 + iOS5 + SmartCover = Anyone can unlock your iPAD</strong><br />This only affects iPad2 with iOS5 and the smart cover set to automatically lock the device.<br />With a locked iPad2, keep pressing the power button until you see the screen telling you to swipe to turn off, close the smart cover, reopen it and push the CANCEL button.<br />This will give you access to the latest application that was used. It means that if you were on the application listing screen you will be able to see all the applications installed on the iPad, but you will not be able to open any otherapplications. This is because you are in the &#8220;finder&#8221;/&#8221;Explorer&#8221; application.<br />But it also means that if before you closed your smart cover to lock </b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post53.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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I used to have one password&#8230;

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post52.html</link>
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<p>I used to have one password.It was the password to my Unix student account and it was in the mid nineties!</p><p>Since then, I must have dozens of passwords for work/home computers, websites, files, etc. Having a truly different password each time is almost impossible unless you use some kind of <a href="http://passwordsafe.sourceforge.net/">password safe</a> application. Or you could use some kind of <em>clever</em> formula, I do emphasise on the &#8220;clever&#8221; because if your formula is to generate the same password with a simple variant at the end of it, a hacker who has access to more than one of your password could find out what that formula is quite easily.</p><p>Another issue is the username. Most security warnings are related to users having the same password, although it is indeed true, there is also an issue with using the same username everywhere. I would argue it is more important to start with a known username than a known password.</p><p>The recent <a href="http</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post52.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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An action on Data Privacy

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post51.html</link>
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<p><a href="http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2113369/users-revenge-facebook-requests?WT.rss_f=News&amp;WT.rss_a=Users+take+revenge+on+Facebook+with+data+requests">The Inquirer</a> recently ran a story about a group targeting Facebook and their use of your personal information. This group called &#8220;<a href="http://europe-v-facebook.org/">Europe Vs Facebook</a>&#8221; claims that Facebook not only stores information about you even after you have deleted it, in other words it never really get deleted, but that they also create ghost profile of users who opted not to be on Facebook in the first place.</p><p>I find this very interesting because technically it is quite possible&#8230; Even if someone is not on Facebook their photo can be uploaded and their name tagged to it. It would require much more intelligence though to be able to correlate some information about that person discussed in Facebook mails/messages but it is in theory possible.</p><p>Although many people have wa</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post51.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Farewell Mr Jobs.

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post50.html</link>
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<p><a href="http://www.apple.com/stevejobs"></p>
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MOVA, ONLIVE, DIDO and a bit of magic (and maybe Aliens! ;)

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post49.html</link>
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<p>This is a bit of an unusual post for this site because it is not directly related to IT Security, but I have recently watched a video of a lecture by <a href="http://www.rearden.com">Rearden</a> CEO <a href="http://www.rearden.com/people/index.html">Steve Perlman</a> that I found truly inspiring!</p><p>Steve Perlman is the Steve Job of Engineering.</p><p>He has participated/invented/funded many different cutting edge technologies and gave an overview of 3 of them in his lecture. What strikes me is how all those technologies are linked together even if isn&#8217;t necessarily obvious. It would be tempting to say it is all driven by his apparent interest in gaming but that would be too simplistic, it is driven by a desire to invent new technologies and not being afraid of rewriting the rules!</p><p>1. The first technology he spoke about is <a href="http://www.mova.com">MOVA</a>, which apparently rewrote the rules on how computer generated 3D characters were done (and more if you look</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post49.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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New Dropbox Issues and a work around

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post48.html</link>
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<p>More issues have been found with Dropbox, they were major issues and the researchers worked with the vendor to fix them before going public.<br />Although they are now fixed they highlight the time bomb Dropbox is for enterprise users as usage convenience and security risk ignorance means sensitive information is likely to be transferred centrally on Dropbox from many different companies and user profiles.</p><p>The 3 security issues discussed in the this <a href="http://www.macworld.com/article/161801/2011/08/dropbox_fixed_several_security_holes_found_by_researchers.html#lsrc.rss_main">article </a>were:<br />&#8211; Hash value spoofing to access other customer&#8217;s data<br />&#8211; Stealing Dropbox hostID to access other customer&#8217;s data<br />&#8211; Potential replay attack when providing other customer&#8217;s data hash combined with any valid host ID (i.e.: the attacker&#8217;s host ID) to get access to the corresponding data.</p><p>One key point made in the article is </b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post48.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Attack on Quantum Cryptography

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post47.html</link>
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<p>There is a recent BBC article on a new attack against a key component of Quantum Cryptography: Key Transportation.</p><p>There are 3 main components to a cryptographic system:<br />&#8211; The strength of the algorithms used (close/open, random generator, collision, etc)<br />&#8211; The integrity of the system (implementation, key storage, devices security, etc)<br />&#8211; The transportation of keys (no full or partial interception of the keys, etc)</p><p>Quantum Cryptography has for some been seen as the future for ensuring the integrity and detection of any interception attempts during key transportation.</p><p><span>I am not a Quantum Physic expert, but what I understand is that key transportation is done through light, where photons of light are sent to the receiver who will inspect the states of those photons to reconstruct the key. It is similar of sending a stream of bits which make the key, apart from the fact that in Quantum Physics a photon has not just a binary state </b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post47.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Dropbox in the Enterprise

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post46.html</link>
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<p>In the never ending story that is more issues/concerns with Dropbox, there is an interesting article discussing the recent changes of Terms and Conditions with using Dropbox:</p><p><a href="http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/security/dropbox-update-terms-of-service-are-in-flux/5719">TechRepublic Post</a></p><p>In a nutshell, Dropbox is trying to protect themselves with what they do and can do with your data hosted in their data centre. So it means granting Dropbox and those they work with<em>&#8220;worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sub-licensable rights to use, copy, distribute, prepare derivative works &#8220;</em> from your data<em>.</em></p><p>The TechRepublic article stresses that it is already the case with sites such as Facebook. There is however a big difference. Facebook is mainly used for social content, personal &#8220;stuff&#8221; (to use Dropbox&#8217;s term). Dropbox is not only used for personal &#8220;stuff&#8221; but also for professional &#8220;stuff&#8221;.</p</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post46.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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GPU Password Cracking

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post45.html</link>
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<p>Brute force password cracking has been around for a while but in the last few years a new way to use your brand new graphic card has emerged which brings high performance attacks against passwords much cheaper and easier.</p><p>This is because the &#8220;brain&#8221; of those graphical card, The Graphical Processing Unit or GPU, is designed to handle mathematical and repetitive tasks very efficiently.</p><p>There is a very good article about this topic on the <a href="http://erratasec.blogspot.com/2011/06/password-cracking-mining-and-gpus.html">ERRATA SECURITY</a> blog with some interesting facts:</p><p>&#8211; Although GPU are now found in most electronic devices (i.e.: phones), dedicated PC cards are obviously better</p><p>&#8211; Radeon is better than GeForce</p><p>&#8211; Although you can use more than one GPU, the benefits are not exponential and most people only need 1 or 2 GPU.</p><p>&#8211; This is because past 8 Characters, a password become near impossible to brute force.</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post45.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Worrying trends with Dropbox

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post44.html</link>
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<p><a href="http://www.dropbox.com/">Dropbox</a> is a very convenient way to synchronise data across locations and devices, it is one of the leader for in the cloud storage solutions. However, it has lately gathered some attention for the wrong reasons.</p><p>There has been a recent upset about the false claims (or incorrect depending where you stand on this) that no-one could decrypt your data on their data centre, including their staff. Well, it turned out it was no-one *excluding* their staff.</p><p>As explained in this article on <a href="http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/security/dropbox-convenient-absolutely-but-is-it-secure/5618?tag=nl.e036">TECHREPUBLIC</a></p><p>That&#8217;s fair enough, so as long as they have the right processes and due diligence in place your data should be safe into their hands, you can trust their staff.</p><p>Or can you?</p><p>Today, it appeared that while updating their backend code, anyone could connect to <a href="http://www.scmagazineuk.com/dropbox-a</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post44.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Turning point for Apple Products Security

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post43.html</link>
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<p>There has recently been an increase in blackhat attention to Apple products.<br />It would seem that what has been predicted for some time is about to be tested:<br />that one of the main reason for Mac/OSX to be more secure than windows is because it did not get the same attention from hackers.</p><p>This had to happen, and I believe that the time is right.<br />Indeed, Apple products are gaining more and more market shares and their hippy/cool image is being eroded by both their very strict view of the world and exponantial user base growth.<br />(On a non security related note, one could wonder how long can Apple be seen as different/cool if everyone has their product!)</p><p>This gives every reasons for hackers to take their attention to Mac OSX and iOS.<br />Recently a fake anti virus software for MAC was discussed on the excellent <a href="http://blog.intego.com/category/security/">Intego blog</a> and many other <a href="http://blog.trendmicro.com/a-walkthrough-of-a-fakeav-in</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post43.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Free Forensic Resources

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post42.html</link>
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<p>Below are two interesting Forensic resources I got from <a href="http://www.jessland.net/common/pgs/index.php?rf=h&#038;lang=eng">Jess Garcia</a></p><p>&#8211; Some great free Forensic windows tools, i.e.: to convert time format<br /><a href="http://www.mikesforensictools.co.uk/index.html">http://www.mikesforensictools.co.uk/index.html</a></p><p>&#8211; Zero Wine Malware; A promessing virtual environment to analyse malware behaviour and impact<br /><a href="http://www.vulnerabilitydatabase.com/2011/06/focus-on-zero-wine-malware-behavior-analysis-v2-0/?utm_content=Tools+Watch&#038;utm_source=ToolsWatch&#038;utm_term=Security">Zero Wine 2.0</a></p>
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Extreme Pen Testing

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post41.html</link>
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<p>Here is an amuzing story where prisoners in a maximum security prison managed to hack their lockdown computers.<br />Their computer seems to be more like a dumb terminal than a full featured one, and what they can do and where they can go is very limited (i.e.: watch television and receive call).<br />However, the prisoners found out that by opening 200+ windows explorer they could cause a buffer overflow which then allowed them more access!</p><p><a href="http://gcn.com/articles/2011/05/30/colorado-prison-sidebar.aspx">http://gcn.com/articles/2011/05/30/colorado-prison-sidebar.aspx</a></p><p>and to go with this story here is a photo I came accross on the internet and that summerize the security state of many companies!</p><p></p>
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Mobile device security questions

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post40.html</link>
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<p>The security of mobile devices is receiving an increasing level of attention and many security vendors are now offering a Mobile Device Management solution. What seems to be leading the market is a secured container approach, which although providing a high level of security could potentially be flawed because it does not take into account what is driving users to buy smartphones and tablets.</p><p>A container approach is a very secured one with a strong legal aspect, however, the same way the consumerisation of devices is driving unapproved devices in companies today, there is a risk that users want a full consumer experience where different users will have different preferred apps to do a similar task. A container approach does not provide this full consumer experience and locks the user to the functionalities the secured container apps provides.<br />Therefore a secured container approach may be flawed through another layer of consumerisation, the apps consumerisation where user</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post40.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Hot Random Numbers!

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post39.html</link>
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<p>The <a href="http://www.lavarnd.org/what/index.html">LavaRND project </a>is a very interesting take on providing a cryptography strong random generator framework.</p><p>Both in terms of plans for physical devices to software library.</p><p>If only I had more time I would love to try building one of their device, nevertheless, I highly recommend this website as it is full of very interesting information related to randomness and they even have some interesting demo using their random framework. You do not require an interest in cryptography to appreciate the work done.</p><p>Next time I need a strong random generator algorithm, I will know where to look :)</p><p><a href="http://www.lavarnd.org/what/index.html">http://www.lavarnd.org</a></p>
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SANS Ondemand Training course: A few Tips

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post38.html</link>
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<p>I went to a SANS Forensic course (508) last year and a few weeks ago I decided to try something new&#8230; to stay at home and dedicate 5 days to do their Ethical Wireless Hacking training course (617).</p><p>Let me first say that the 617 training course was really good, the author of the course and the recordings were made by Joshua Wright who runs the <a href="http://www.willhackforsushi.com/">http://www.willhackforsushi.com</a> blog. He is very knowledgeable and his enthusiasm was even contagious through audio only. In fact this is a huge understatement! I was truly amazed by his skills, stories and training delivery!<br />So much that for 7 days I was up at 9am and worked until 2am each day on the different content material covered by the course.</p><p>As I almost lost my sanity and started dreaming of ToDS/FromDS bits and fuzzing I thought I would share a few tips on this type of training course.</p><p>&#8211; Check the last time the course was updated, and if there is an upco</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post38.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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An interesting attack on Voice Over IP Security

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post37.html</link>
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<p>I just came accross an interesting attack on the Secure Real Time Protocol (<a href="http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/SRTP">SRTP</a>) using Variable Bit Rate codecs (VBR). That protocol is used to secure voice or IP communication by encrypting the transmitted data.</p><p>The attack is described in this <a href="http://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-avtcore-srtp-vbr-audio/?include_text=1">draft paper </a>but for the the full details you should take a look at the very comprehensive <a href="http://www.cs.jhu.edu/~fabian/papers/oakland08.pdf">white paper here </a>which dates back to 2008.</p><p>It usesthe phoneticpronunciation of words to identify patterns in the VBR encoding which can be used to bypass encryption and identify phrases as well as the language spoken. So this attack does not target individual words, but phrases or sentences.</p><p>Although the paper claims in some cases a success rate of 90% it has an average of 50% success, which is already good enough! What is </b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post37.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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What could be the impact of the RSA breach

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<p>In the past few months there seems to have been a rise in what is called Advance Persistant Threats (APT).<br />Wikipedia actually has a short but comprehensive description of what it means <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Persistent_Threat">HERE</a>.</p><p>An article on <a href="http://www.scmagazineuk.com/rsa-hit-by-advanced-persistent-threat-that-compromises-securid-two-factor-authentication-products/article/198628/?DCMP=EMC-SCUK_Newswire">SC Magazine </a>describes what seems to have been an APT against RSA affecting the security of their two factor authentication products.<br />It is not clear exactly what has been stolen at the moment, but RSA has admited that some sensitive information has been leaked/downloaded.</p><p>By reading some of the security community reactions (<a href="http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=10765">Help net security article</a>) there seems to be 3 main concerns:<br />1. Security breach related to their pseudo random number genera</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post36.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Time Square Video Screen Hack: A Nice hoax

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post35.html</link>
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<p>The video below would be a really great hack, but it seems toonly be a hoax for a couple of reasons:</p><p>&#8211; It is unlikelysuch hacker would be showing his face so willingly.<br />&#8211; Apparently to hack those wireless billboard you would attack first the central &#8220;billboard broadcasting computer&#8221;.</p><p>Now&#8230; if the wireless communications to those billboard was unsecured, then it could be a different story :)</p><p><object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/s_HUYi9aVvI" width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/s_HUYi9aVvI" /><param name="autostart" value="true" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /></object><br /><a title="YouTube" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_HUYi9aVvI">YouTube Direkt</a><!-- generated by WordPress plugin Embedded Video --></p>
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Apple Security

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post34.html</link>
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<p>With the rise in popularity of Apple products there is also an increasing interest from hackers and security professionals.</p><p>The well oiled speech from Apple and their fan is that apple products are more secure than the competition. Especially around the Mac OS X, which does not need Anti-Viruses, does not get malware, etc.</p><p>But is this actually true? and even if it is today, will it always remain so?</p><p>I do not think so.</p><p>A number of security vendors have started to offer some anti-virus for Mac: <a href="http://www.sophos.com/products/enterprise/endpoint/security-and-control/mac/">Sophos</a>, <a href="http://www.mcafee.com/us/products/virusscan-for-mac.aspx">McAfee</a>, <a href="http://www.clamxav.com/">ClamXav</a>, to name a few!</p><p>You could argue they are just surfing on the Apple computer market share increase, but then you would forget that some MAC OS X trojans are being seen around, for example, SOPHOS recently discussed a new MAC OS X trojan:<a href=</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post34.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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What does SSD drives have to do with IPv6?

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post33.html</link>
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<p>There has been a number of articles in the past few weeks about SSD drives proving to be difficult to securely wipe with conventional methods that are working on non SDD drives. Such as degaussing or repeated data overwrites.</p><p>It seems to have all come from the work of some californian researchers who have published a paper on that topic and available <a href="http://www.usenix.org/events/fast11/tech/full_papers/Wei.pdf">HERE</a>.</p><p>And an easier to read summary is available on <a href="http://www.macworld.com/article/158061/2011/02/ssd.html#lsrc.rss_main">Macworld</a></p><p>It is not all bad though, one solution is to fully encrypt the disk and some companies such as <a href="http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&amp;source=web&amp;cd=2&amp;ved=0CCEQFjAB&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.samsung.com%2Fglobal%2Fbusiness%2Fsemiconductor%2Fsupport%2Fbrochures%2Fdownloads%2Fflash_ssd%2FSSi_SSD_ds_final.pdf&amp;ei=GGN5Tb_7JMeLhQfUy6yABw&amp;usg=AFQjCNGmj7Fpjfh9IgYBrh8Z8m7UDBVIVg&amp;sig2=KB</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post33.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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The rise of Memory Scrapping attacks and what it means to IRM, Disk Encryption and Thunderbolt

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post32.html</link>
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<p>No matter how much layer of security you implement on a computer there always will be one area that is protected by a simple old access control, the memory.</p><p>You can have a complex password policy, dual factor authentication, full disk encryption, file encryption which could even be extended through the use of an Information Right Management solution, for that protected information to be accessed and manipulated it needs to be decrypted into memory.</p><p>The security of that data in memory then relies on memory access control and proper segregation, I am not sure we can talk about memory sandboxing but thats the same idea. The data will, of course, also rely on the physical security of the device it is hosted on.</p><p>Gaining administrator access on that device would therefore grant you access to the full memory.</p><p>This last point is of significance.</p><p>For IRM solutions, being an administrator on a device does not necessarily mean you also have access to the users IR</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post32.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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The inevitable rise of malware on mobile devices

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post31.html</link>
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<p>Although it has been announced for quite some time that malware is growing on the mobile market, it is still not very visible.</p><p>That does not mean it isn&#8217;t already here or will be.</p><p>Below is an interesting article on a mobile developer who was contacted by a company that wanted to pay him some money as long as he included some of their &#8220;codes&#8221; into his popular game.<br />It was in fact, malware. It could directly call premium number without the user intervention or even eavesdrop on the microphone.<br />It has a happy ending as the developer decided against using that code and instead warn others. But for one good deed, how many have fallen or will fall for the money?</p><p><a href="http://community.websense.com/blogs/securitylabs/archive/2011/02/16/beware-of-embedded-spyware-of-mobile-apps.aspx">Websense Article on the White Hat Developer<br /></a></p><p>Now the question is: Would this be possible on the iPhone with the Apps Store?</p><p><a href="http:/</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post31.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Do what I say not what I do

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post30.html</link>
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<p>Below is a very good article describing the recent battle between the<strong> Anonymous Hacking group and the HBGary company</strong>.</p><p>In a nutshell, a security company, &#8220;HBGary&#8221;, who is also working for the US government was about to release what they think were the identity of a hacking group called &#8220;Anonymous&#8221; who conducted some high profile hacks against large organisations who were against the wikileaks website. The hacking group response was swift and brutal, they hacked the HBGary websites, defaced them, hacked into the owner&#8217;s email account and grabbed lot of user personal information from one of the company&#8217;s related website, rootkit.com</p><p>It provides a good example of the old adage &#8220;do what I say not what I do&#8221; but this time in the world of IT Security. Of course you can almost never get IT Security 100% right, but in that case it would seem some of the security weaknesses that were exploited should have never been</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post30.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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The world of Computer Forensics

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<p>I have recently attended a <a href="http://www.sans.org/security-training/advanced-computer-forensic-analysis-incident-response-98-mid">SANS Forensic course</a> in London. It was the best training course I have ever been to, not only the content was really interesting and very well delivered but all the extra activities surrounding the training course were outstanding (presentations, challenges, social events, etc).</p><p>Forensic was new to me and I found the techniques taught as very good eye openers in two different ways:</p><p>&#8211;Forensic techniques can be applied to other area of IT security than just forensic investigations, such as malware analysis and DLP. The latter was a bit of a surprise to me, but by understanding some of the forensic techniques you can also understand how part of a DLP engine would work when searching for specific files on filesystems (at rest) and recognised/tagged when on the network (on the move). I will find it interesting to see if my new know</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post29.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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New iOS Security attack, this time it looks bad!

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<p>Another attack on the iOS security has been published today and there are two recurring themes to the attacks I described in previous posts, namely: weaknesses with the Keychain and iOS encryption implementation.</p><p>But this time they have been used differently and seem to provide an attacker access to any passwords stored on an iOS device, even if it is passcode protected.<br />One main difference in this attack, is that the attacker would only requires the iOS devices and nothing else (as opposed to the relevant synced PC with previous attacks).</p><p>It also seems to prove Zdiarski&#8217;s concerns over the iOS encryption controls to be true.<br />The attack used some jailbreaking techniques to access the iOS device boot/ram, bypassing the passcode and using the OS to run a script to access the local keychain and all the passwords it may contain (email, VPN, web apps, etc)<br />It seems that the encrypted data is not linked to the user passcode, which means that if someone ca</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post28.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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A Case Study, when Standard Security Certifications are not always your friend!

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post27.html</link>
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<p>When reviewing security products you often find they have some sort of Standard Security Certifications which should garantee a certain level of security.<br />Some certifications ensure adequate security controls are in place for audits, operational models, physical security, cryptography modules, etc.</p><p>The benefit of those certifications is that it should save you times and money to ensure some security requirements are met, they can also be used in contrat binding security controls, i.e.: you must comply with ISO XXXX.</p><p>There is however a drawback, an increasing number of vendors now hide behind those certifications and thus provide very little details about their security controls.<br />Likewise, many companies do not look further than a certification name on a paper to pass its security requirement reviews.</p><p>This is where the problem lies, how many Security professionals actually know what having such certifications actually means? to what part of the vendor&#82</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post27.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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The increasing risk of 3G+ network within the corporate world

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post26.html</link>
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<p>I remember a time where access to the internet from the work place was only available from a couple of &#8220;Internet Stations&#8221; and where the Internal company network was just that, Internal with no external links! At that time, to get around those controls, one could set up dial up/ADSL lines under his desk and it was deemed as a risk to the Internal Network integrity from within the company&rsquo;s premises. This was not widespread and required a specific intent to bypass the company&rsquo;s network policy.</p><p>Then came Wi-Fi and hotspots started to flourish everywhere, often basic security was forgotten, such as not bridging it to the Internal Network or not enforcing adequate access controls. It was, and still is, deemed as a risk to the company&rsquo;s network integrity. Although this is a more widespread practise there are controls in place and detection mechanisms to remediate the related security risks.</p><p>Both are examples of uncontrolled access to company res</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post26.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Follow-up on Apple iOS Full Disk Encryption

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<p>Regarding my previous post I wanted to mitigate some of the risks I was describing.<br />In a nutshell, it is bad, but not that bad! :)</p><p><strong>Escrow keybag</strong><br />There is indeed a forensic issue with the escrow keybag feature, but because it requires the attacker to have both the targeted mobile device and the computer used to sync it with, That attacker would first need to break the computer&#8217;s security to access its filesystem.</p><p>Because that computer is used to sync the mobile device, most of the information it contains is likely to be on the computer as well.<br />For example, email accounts are likely to have been setup both on the computer and the mobile device, office files are likely to have been created on the computer, etc.</p><p>Therefore gaining access to the computer&#8217;s filesystem is likely to already give you access to most of the mobile device&#8217;s data.<br />Having said that, there is no garantee it will always be the case and some i</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post25.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Apple and their elusive Full Disk Encryption solution

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post24.html</link>
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</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post24.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Full Disk Encryption Attacks

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<p>Although 3 years old, this is a good article and a link to a paper about coldboot attack against full disk encryption technology.</p><p>In a nutshell, it is related to data not being encrypted when stored in RAM and although it is volatile: &#8220;from 2.5 to 35 seconds to reach a Null State&#8221; when switched off, it can be recovered with a few techniques such as dropping the RAM temperature to slow down that &#8220;null state&#8221; or booting up the device through a very small kernel OS so only a small portion of the RAM is over written through a USB device for example.</p><p>What makes this attack even more powerful is that a lot of information &#8220;derived from the encryption keys&#8221; are stored in RAM, usually to speedup calculations.<br />The author then warn those attacks would be very difficult to prevent without a radical change in hardware architecture or &#8220;overhaul of the encryption process itself&#8221;.</p><p><a href="http://arstechnica.com/science/news/20</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post23.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Cellular Network Attacks

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<p>A few websites have been running a story today on an upcoming attack announcement/demo in next week black hat conference.</p><p>Instead of targeting the OS or a specific app, that attack would target bugs directly in a component used to send and receive calls, a baseband chip. Although technically it is still a software attack, the code used to control that chip, it would bypass any security measures in place at the OS level, and would especially be out of Apple/Google control. Such attack could be used to intercept calls or spy on a phone user by activating its phone microphone&#8230; </p><p>But then surely you would also need to find a bug in the microphone chip? Or elevate your privilege at the OS level from the baseband chip bug?<br />Anyway, eavesdropping on calls would at least be possible.</p><p>What makes this news interesting is both that duplicating a cell tower is becoming easier/cheaper (about $2k) and that you can&#8217;t secure and control everything, even in close sy</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post22.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Android vs iOS Security

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<p>A sensitive topic but below is my initial view on the security offered by those two platforms.</p><p>My view is that Android, being a more open platform, offers more capabilities (flash, access to the root system, extension slots, etc). However, because of this it offers a less secured experience out of the box.</p><p>Apple, by not allowing certain technologies such as flash (flash security issues are endless) and by limiting access to its root system alsolimits its security exposure compare to android devices.</p><p>A very important security feature is then offered by the app store screening process. Although not perfect by any means, it still gets rid of obvious bad or flawed apps and protects iOS users further.</p><p>None of the devices are bulletproof and both suffered some security issues:<br />&#8211; <strong>iOS</strong>: Worm on jail broken iPhone and phone lock bypass (fixed in iOS v4.2)<br />&#8211; <strong>Android</strong>:Core libraries are open and apps can have deeper</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post21.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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The scary world of Social Media and geo tagging

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post20.html</link>
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<p>As the saying goes, &#8220;it is never too late&#8221;, and it is only recently that I created a twitter account.<br />I was convinced to do so after attending a SANS training course (more on that soon) where the instructor told us twitter was the best way to keep up to date and in touch with a great online security community.</p><p>I am not new to social media, but after &#8220;playing&#8221; with twitter for a few days I am both impressed and concerned!</p><p>Impressed because it is slick and indeed a great way to follow up some topics and keep in touch.<br />Concerned because it is a mine gold for wanna be thief! </p><p>It has been well publicized that people share far too much information on Facebook, information that can sometimes be used against them (by employers, people who dislike you, ex lovers, etc).<br />I feel however the micro blogging format of twitter invites more its users at describing and sharing mundane information such as what you eat, what you think, what you </b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post20.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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PS3 Hacked and Cryptography

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<p>The recent hack on PS3 where the private key used by Sony to sign their games has been recovered is of course a very bad news for Sony. It finishes to open the door to piracy which started in January 2010. In theory, anyone could now sign (pirated) software to run natively on the PS3.</p><p>It is a case of badly implemented cryptography algorithm, in that case, the use a proprietary signing algorithm with a faulty random generator.<br />Crypto 101 says to NEVER use proprietary/secret algorithms. Now Sony&rsquo;s will pay the price for not listening :)<br />The PS3 hack story is a great example of badly implemented cryptography which is as important as the choice of the security controls used to protect an asset. </p><p><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12116051">BBC NEWS ARTICLE</a></p><p>The start of an answer from Sony, which seems to indicate they did not grasp the severity of the issue when first announced about a week ago<br /><a href="http://www.myce.com/news/sony</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post19.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Interesting acquisitions

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<p>2011 seems to cary on with the trend of security companies acquisitions by big IT names. This is now the turn of <a href="http://www.darkreading.com/security-services/167801101/security/client-security/229000095/dell-to-acquire-secureworks.html">DELL to buy SecureWorks</a>, planning to offer managed security services in a near future.</p><p>Another interesting acquisition is that of <a href="http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110105006777/en/Sourcefire-Announces-Acquisition-Immunet">Immunet by Sourcefire</a>, which should help the later company to grow its business &#8220;in the cloud&#8221;. </p><p>SaaS and &#8220;in the cloud&#8221; are two 2010 themes which are likely to grow even more this year. </p>
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&#8220;Freemium&#8221; user procurement Strategy

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<link>https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post17.html</link>
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<p>Although this post is not directly related to IT Security, some of its implications are.</p><p>Looking at the recent craze around iOS devices which is pushing many companies to react to its users bringing such devices in the corporate environment, I wonder if some kind of new and ever so slightly twisted corporate &#8220;Freemium&#8221; user procurement strategy could be extracted from this&#8230;</p><p>&#8211; Wait for a new &#8220;sexy&#8221; gadget to come along that everyone wants<br />&#8211; Offer a free and equivalent &#8220;boring&#8221;/cheaper gadget, which does the job and just that.<br />&#8211; Resist your users to provide that new gadget&#8230;<br />&#8211; &#8230;but do not resist that much so it does not work in your corporate environment<br />&#8211; Accept and work to mitigate the risks associated with those uncontrolled devices<br />&#8211; Wait for the number of those users to grow and pass a tipping point<br />&#8211; Officially accept the use of those new gadg</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post17.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Stuxnet, a Digital Worm with physical consequences (not to say political!)

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<p>To follow-up on the theme of my last post, this worm has recently received a lot of media attention:<br />&#8211; It targeted Iran nuclear Plants (among other things)<br />&#8211; It is so sophisticated that it has likely been done with some country/national support<br />&#8211; It had a payload with physical consequences</p><p>One thing which did catch my attention was that in order for this worm to be so successful against a Process Network, the group of &ldquo;hackers&rdquo; must have had access to a testing environment&hellip; not everyone has a refinery in their back garden&hellip;</p><p>Below is a good explanation of what it actually does and how it does it.<br />If you are in a hurry:<br /><a href="http://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/exploring-stuxnet-s-plc-infection-process"> http://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/exploring-stuxnet-s-plc-infection-process</a><br />If your TV is broken:<br /><a href="http://www.eset.com/resources/white-papers/Stuxnet_Under_the_Microscope.pd</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post16.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Are you taking ZeuS wrath seriously?

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<p>ZeuS seems to be a popular and quite successful Trojan at the moment, at least in the UK.
<br />It has been around for a while and has been updated several times (at least 3).
<br />There is an excellent <a href="http://www.m86security.com/documents/pdfs/security_labs/cybercriminals_target_online_banking.pdf">white paper written by M86 Security</a> describing its use in what looks like an ongoing and sustain attack against British Banks.
<br />The latest arrests were announced today where hackers had managed to steal about 
<a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1316022/Nineteen-arrested-online-bank-raid-netted-20m.html">20m pounds</a>!
<br />If you search the Internet you can see a trend where British bank customers have been successfully defrauded from their money over the last year, all by hackers using the ZeuS Trojan and for what seems an increasing amount of money!
</p><p>What I find interesting is the fact money is being stolen at large and increasing scale. Actual</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post15.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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IDC&#8217;s IT Security Conference 2010 &#8211; My take on it.

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<p>Yesterday I attended the IDC Security Conference in London.</p><p>I was not too sure what to think of it as I never attended that event before and only accepted a &#8220;spam/unsolicited invite&#8221; because for once I took the time to read the agenda and list of speakers who were to attend.</p><p>I can now say I do not regret it and it was a great conference with lot of interesting content on the future security context related to cloud and mobile computing with a pinch of data privacy.</p><p>One of the reason I decided to attend was also because the keynote speaker was Bruce Schneier, a person I never had the privilege to see at a conference before and whom I appreciate his offbeat approach to IT Security.</p><p>Although I have attached a mindmap of my conference notes at the end of the post, if you do not want to see a &#8220;Death by MindMap&#8221; or have a 50inch screen then I invite you to read the many highlights and industry insights which were discussed at that conferenc</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post14.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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A funny case for not reusing passwords

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<p style="text-align: left;">By the way, you are free to create an account on my website! ;)</p><p style="text-align: left;">As seen on <a href="http://www.xkcd.com">XKCD.COM</a>!</p><p style="text-align: left;"></p>
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Arcsight, another expensive acquisition&#8230; sorry, merger!

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<p>Following on the $7 billion and a bit acquisition of mcAfee by Intel last month, it is now the turn of Arcsight, a data correlation engine, to get acquired by HP for $1.5 billion, a bargain then! This follows a trend for large non IT Security companies to step into the security field.</p><p>What I found interesting though is the difference in vocabulary used by the two companies, actually, by the Arcsight current CEO Tom Reilly. HP speaks about &#8220;acquisition&#8221;, which really it&#8217;s what it is; whereas Tom&#8217;s email to Arcsight clients speaks about a &#8220;merger&#8221;. I guess this is standard practise when the smaller party get &#8220;swallowed&#8221; by a bigger company.</p><p>I&#8217;d be interested to see what changes this &#8220;merger&#8221; will bring to Arcsight and if any of the HP Operation Manager technology (aka OpenView) will find its way in a future Arcsight ESM release&#8230; or vice versa!</p><p><a href="http://www8.hp.com/uk/en/hp-news/article_de</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post12.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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DoD Windows OS Security guides

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<p>I have recently came across that Department of Defence website where they provide free and unclassified Windows Security Guides. From Windows 2000 to windows 7, they provide a set of checklist and &#8220;STIG&#8221; which stands for Security Technical Implementation Guides.</p><p>Having only checked the Windows 7 &#8220;STIG&#8221;, I found it a useful resource when one can get some ideas on how to secure/validate a windows 7 server configuration.</p><p><a href="http://iase.disa.mil/stigs/content_pages/windows_os_security.html">http://iase.disa.mil/stigs/content_pages/windows_os_security.html</a></p>
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An update on my XOR-Sum Uniqueness Cryptanalysis attack

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<p>I have updated the information I wrote about what I consider to be a potentially new type of cryptanalysis attack.</p><p>Although the described attack is relevant to my BUGS algorithm, it could also be used to attack any algorithms using some type of Cipher Block Chaining (CBC) or Cipher Feedback (CFB) mode of operation, in fact, any algorithms using a XOR function between plaintext blocks as part of their encryption process.</p><p><strong>The explanation assume the reader is familiar with the different </strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Block_cipher_modes_of_operation"><strong>block cipher modes of operation</strong></a><strong>. Although I start with a simple example, it helps setting the context for which the final attack could be in theory applied to: <span style="text-decoration: underline;">any XOR operations</span>.</strong></p><p>For more information on my theoretical Unrestricted<strong> </strong>XOR-Sum Uniqueness Cryptanalysis attack<strong>, </strong>please </b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post10.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Apple new Patent could mean Big Brother on your phone

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<p>The following article from Macworld describes a new patent from Apple to detect jail-broken iphone/ipad. It also gives an interesting security twist on that patent, where it is in theory possible to take hidden photos and voice recording of a potential thief, analyse the accelerometer data to define if the thief is walking, driving or even flying, get GPS location, etc.<br /><a href="http://www.macworld.com/article/153612/2010/08/apple_mobiledevice_patent.html">http://www.macworld.com/article/153612/2010/08/apple_mobiledevice_patent.html</a></p><p>I also came across that app for the iphone, which does not go quite as far but highlight the fact people have already thought about this:<br /><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/spytools/id382646396?mt=8#">SpyTools for iphone</a></p>
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New York Times Article on Russian Harcker&#8217;s Arrest

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<p>There is maybe nothing new about governments protecting their national hackers but this is a good example on how a hacker can openly operate in his own country and then get caught in another.<br />The article below also makes reference to an earlier case where a Russian hacker was lured to the USA and arrested through evidence gathered by the FBI hacking his computer back own.<br />I have always wondered how could such evidence stand in court, what would stop the FBI to plant some fake evidence?? How is hacking into the computer located in a different country be legal either?</p><p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/24/business/global/24cyber.html?_r=1">Hacker&rsquo;s Arrest Offers Glimpse Into Crime in Russia</a></p>
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Intel set to acquire McAfee for £5 billion

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<p>According to the article below both companies&#8217; board of directors have agreed a deal. With Intel looking at providing some &#8220;hardware-enhanced&#8221; security i wonder if we will one day see an AV aware CPU? :)</p><p><a href="http://www.scmagazineuk.com/intel-set-to-acquire-mcafee/article/177149/?DCMP=EMC-SCUK_Newswire">SC Magazine Article</a></p>
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Weekly Digest #3 &#8211; Interesting Articles

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<p>A rather large selection of news as I missed last week weekly digest!</p><p><strong>Are Anti Virus Obsolete?</strong><br />I recently had a discussion with a work colleague who was claiming Anti Virus are not as good at preventing infections as they used to be, technology is moving fast and Anti Virus vendors seem to be playing catchup with more and more delay. He also stated that most AV only detects 20% of new viruses&#8230; A claim I haven&#8217;t been able to verify by doing a quick search on the Internet, so let&#8217;s just say I agree we are seeing more and more new viruses that we, as security professionals, have to inform the AV vendors about.</p><p>On that topic, the future of AV looks to be a difficult road ahead as discussed in a recent Kaspersky&#8217;s interview below, what I found the most interesting is the last paragraph were they mention a hacker who wrote a tool which gathered many security company IP addresses. The hacker then used this information to change the</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post6.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Weekly Digest #2 &#8211; Interesting Articles

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<p><strong>WPA Cracking</strong><br />An interestingreference on <a href="http://www.schneier.com">Schneier&#8217;s</a> blog to an article describing a &#8220;in the cloud&#8221; service to crack WPA keys.It is the realisationofthe concept of distributed security cracking mentioned in 2008 by Chad Perrin, not sure if he was the first to introduce that idea.<br /><a href="http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/security/?p=4097">http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/security/?p=4097</a></p><p><strong>WPA2 Vulnerability &#8211; Hole 196</strong><br />A new man-in-the-middle attack for WPA2 seems to have been found and recently demonstrated at the Defcon 18<br /><a href="http://www.airtightnetworks.com/WPA2-Hole196">http://www.airtightnetworks.com/WPA2-Hole196</a></p><p><strong>World&#8217;s Top Malware</strong><br />FireEye has produced a nice colourful report on the 20 top malware they found on the net with their technology. Although this could be guess, it is interesting that the top4 types of </b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post5.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Weekly Digest #1 &#8211; Interesting Articles

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<p>Working in IT Security I receive and get to read lot of security related articles. I will list here a summary of the ones I found the most interesting, the idea is to try publishing this list on a weekly basis&#8230; not sure I will always have the time to do so, hence why the subject of those posts will be numbered, and we start with week #1:</p><p>&#8211; <strong>Safari Vulnerability</strong><br />An Auto-fill vulnerability in the Safari browser which allows attackers to get info from your personal contact details.<br />Reading the comments on that article, it is not clear if this could also affect other WebKit based browsers such as Chrome.<br />It may be best practise anyway to disable the auto fill option in any browsers you are using.<br /><a href="http://jeremiahgrossman.blogspot.com/2010/07/i-know-who-your-name-where-you-work-and.html">http://jeremiahgrossman.blogspot.com/2010/07/i-know-who-your-name-where-you-work-and.html</a></p><p>&#8211; <strong>New GSM-cracking softwar</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post4.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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New Version of Truecrypt

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<p>Truecrypt is a tool I have been using for a while, it is a great product and&#8230; free!</p><p>It allows for full disk encryption, being your desktop hardisk or a USB stick.</p><p>A new version has just been released, version 7, and it now provides:<br />&#8211; Hardware acceleration<br />&#8211; Auto-mount (windows)<br />&#8211; Security improvements related to windows hibernation files</p><p>Its main features are:<br />&#8211; Creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk.<br />&#8211; Encrypts an entire partition or storage device such as USB flash drive or hard drive.<br />&#8211; Encrypts a partition or drive where Windows is installed (pre-boot authentication).<br />&#8211; Encryption is automatic, real-time (on-the-fly) and transparent.<br />&#8211; Parallelization and pipelining allow data to be read and written as fast as if the drive was not encrypted.<br />&#8211; Encryption can be hardware-accelerated on modern processors.<br />&#8211; Pro</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post3.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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Email working again

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<p>This morning I checked my spam folder related to this website/domain name and noticed there had been no new spam for about a week&#8230; not that I am missing it but this did not sound quite right!</p><p>Indeed, it looks like my service provider recently had some issues with one of their site being compromised and used to host some malicious software and as a result their back-end domain was blacklisted by Google. Something they did not like too much&#8230;</p><p>They took the drastic decision to change their back-end domain, it seems to have worked. But in the process they have messed up some accounts. They have now fixed the issue with my domain but if you have sent me an email recently then, I am afraid, that email is lost and you probably did not receive any error message either!</p><p>I never thought spamming could be useful to the receiver of it, but in this case the lack of noise highlighted another issue :)</p>
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It was only yesterday&#8230;

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<p>For over 3 years this website has not been updated and it was time to give it a face lift!</p><p>It is actually quite astonishing to think this website has existed since 1998, 12 years! I guess I am getting older, my hair are getting greyer and there is less of it! One thing that hasn&#8217;t change though is my interest in Cryptography.</p><p>Because of a busy professional life in the IT Security world I haven&#8217;t been able to work on the BUGS algorithm for many years. However, I have recently completed a Master in Information Security at the London Royal Holloway University. I logically chose to work on a cryptography subject for my Master Thesis. This allowed me to spend some time back on the BUGS algorithm and, for the first time, learn some cryptanalysis techniques!</p><p>The main subject of my thesis was to give an &#8220;Overview of Modern Symmetric-Key Cipher Cryptanalysis Techniques&#8221;, as such after a general introduction on cryptography and cryptanalysis I focuse</b></a></i></li></ol></strong>...</center> <br> <a href="https://www.elysiumsecurity.com/blog/All/post1.html"> <b><i> >>[READ MORE] </b></i></a></p> 
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