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Guess who’s leaking as much data as cybercriminals

  • min read
    • New research by Kaspersky finds employees are causing more data leaks. So much so that employee action and cyberattacks are running neck-and-neck. What's behind this growth in employee-initiated data leaking? And what can business leaders do to turn employees from cyber risk to cyber asset? Why are employees causing more data leaks? More than 3,000 IT security managers in 26 countries contributed views to Kaspersky's 2022 IT Security Economics report. The research found that in 2022, cyberattacks caused 23 percent of data leaks, while employees caused a close 22 percent. This growing proportion of leaks linked to employees may follow work-life changes since the pandemic. The report says, "IT security teams are now battling data leakages caused by employees […] following the introduction of new staff laptops or tablets, and Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to enable remote working." And it's not all innocent mistakes. Most employee-triggered leaks involved ignoring cybersecurity policy, but security managers also reported more than a third (36 percent) were deliberate acts of sabotage or espionage. How employees cause data leaks Small, almost mundane actions often lead to data leaks. Usually, the employee is tricked by a 'social engineering' tactic or practicing poor cyber 'hygiene.' But what does that mean? Social engineering Cybercriminals use manipulative tricks known as social engineering to fool employees into giving them access to systems or giving out information they otherwise wouldn't. A common approach is 'phishing' – emails or messages containing links that give cybercriminals access to business systems when clicked on. Phishing is getting more sophisticated – mimicking, for example, emails announcing sales or discounts from household brands so well they're hard to tell apart from the real thing. 'Spear phishing' is more targeted and personalized. It might, for example, target those in an organization most likely to take the bait, or mimic a target organization's internal newsletter or email format. Cybercriminals also engage in social engineering one-on-one. For example, they may phone employees saying they're from the IT support desk and try to persuade the employee to share their login and password details. Cyber hygiene Maintaining good cyber hygiene means everyday practices that make it harder for cybercriminals to access systems. The actions that make up cyber hygiene will hopefully be familiar, for example: Having complex passwords, always using a VPN when working remotely and deleting digital information you no longer need. How to stop employee leaks Cybersecurity awareness training aims to teach cyber hygiene alongside the broader education employees need to notice and avoid falling for social engineering tricks. Earlier Kaspersky research in partnership with Longitude, a thought leadership agency within the Financial Times Group, found businesses confident in their cyber skills programs also report better overall cyberattack preparedness. While cybersecurity experts should upskill regularly, the research highlights the importance of training all staff – beyond the IT department – to create a company-wide cybersecurity culture. One-off training is also not enough: staff need to absorb ideas and practice skills to make new habits. Heathrow Airport's innovative employee cyber awareness program aims to change behavior long-term with 'little and often' education targeted at those who need it most. Heathrow uses mock phishing emails to identify employees at risk of falling for cybercriminals' tricks, so they're not wasting time educating employees whose cyber awareness is already strong. Cybersecurity awareness training should also aim to encourage 'cyber pride' – building positive motivation for good cyber behavior rather than stoking fear. What about preventing employee sabotage? Comprehensive cybersecurity education may not be enough to prevent the 36 percent of employee-generated data leaks done by disgruntled employees. Examples of how employees have deliberately leaked data abound – from sharing customer data online to handing access keys to cybercriminals. Regular user access reviews – checking who has access to what and keeping all system access to a minimum – are important, but nothing surpasses the value of maintaining a positive workplace culture. Leaders need ways to 'temperature check' their organization beyond relying on the Personnel department or peers in senior leadership to thoroughly report concerns. Affected departments have a 'dog in the fight,' so to speak, and may not share everything they should. Ways to temperature-check include 360-degree feedback mechanisms – where all staff give anonymous feedback about their manager. Writing in Forbes, founder of Rungway workplace advice platform, Julie Chakraverty, says, "To… uncover hidden attitudes and views, you need to ask your employees how they feel. Lead by example by being fully open and transparent… [and] empower your employees to share their opinions and give honest feedback." The change in how data leaks happen, with more employees triggering them, should give every business pause for thought. Bringing leadership focus back to workplace culture and employee wellbeing has always paid dividends across the business, but we now understand its crucial importance in keeping data safe. Regular, targeted cybersecurity education, strong cyber hygiene and understanding how everyone in your organization is feeling should be central to your data protection strategy.
lighting up dark web

How police identify criminals selling data on the dark web

  • min read
    • In the north of England, a team of officers are getting creative. They're finding ways to identify criminals selling personal data, fake COVID-19 vaccines and child sexual abuse images on the dark web. Tomorrow Unlocked's film Lighting up the Dark Web follows the UK's Yorkshire and Humber Regional Cybercrime Unit (RCCU) in their quest to unmask a crime ring selling personal data for fraud. What is the dark web? The dark web is a network of computers where web traffic is anonymized. Many use it to access marketplaces and other sites to commit crime. The dark web can also be used for good. Dissidents, whistleblowers and investigative journalists use it to communicate anonymously online, and others use it to avoid online data collection. The sale of personal data is big business on the dark web. Fraudsters can buy names, dates of birth, credit card information and more. The FBI reports losses from fraud topped 4 billion US dollars in 2020. Linking dark web identities and real-world people In 2014, a trader called Data Pro was selling National Insurance numbers, dates of birth, credit card numbers and more on the dark web marketplace Evolution. RCCU suspected the source was a UK-based business. RCCU used 'slips' – when Data Pro occasionally used identifiable information – to link his clear web and dark web identities. How businesses can protect themselves from dark web criminals While the dark web seemed impossible to control in the past, law enforcement is now getting ahead. Businesses can also act to give fraudsters less opportunity to make dark web profits out of their data. First and foremost, protect your business's data from being stolen with strong data security practices, including encrypting your data and educating employees on how to avoid accidentally giving cybercriminals access. Your people are your most important security feature because most breaches start with basic errors like clicking a link in a rogue email or giving login details to someone who isn't who they said they were. If your data is already stolen and ends up on the dark web, dark web monitoring services like Have I Been Pwned may help you identify a breach and alert those whose information was stolen faster. As law enforcement becomes more cyber savvy, there are fewer places for cybercriminals to hide. Increasing international cooperation is also helping light up the darkest parts of the web. Businesses also have a part to play by reducing the opportunities for their data to be stolen and sold.
manage data leak

Infographic: Five vital steps to deal with a data breach

  • min read
    • Things can be frantic when you're dealing with a data breach. While swiftly diagnosing the problem and communicating clearly with everyone who needs to know, it's easy to miss something that could have serious consequences later. Use these five pointers to make sure you've done the right thing after a data breach. 1.  Assess the situation First, assess the data breach's risk to customers. Risk assessment lets you decide the next steps, including whether to report the breach. If it's a high risk to customers, you must inform them without undue delay, perhaps even before reporting to authorities. 2.  Be transparent and helpful Don't try to cover up the breach or hide details from those affected. If you hide things, you may see customers losing trust in your business on top of negative news coverage. When you tell customers what happened, give them advice on what to do next. 3.  Document everything Document every data breach, even if you don't have to report it. Record what happened, the steps you took and why the breach was reported or not reported. 4.  Learn from it Once you identify the cause, fix it. Next, make sure all staff receive training in how to prevent future breaches. Human error causes most data breaches. 5.  Make sure you notify everyone affected If you're processing data for other organizations, don't forget to tell them about the breach. They will have steps they must take too. Using these five pointers after a data breach will help your business get back on its feet sooner rather than later. Communicating swiftly and clearly with customers and partners is all-important in limiting the breach's impact on your business. It may happen to even the most cybersecurity-conscious organizations, but there's still a lot you can do to prepare. Equipping your employees with cybersecurity skills and knowledge is crucial to ensuring your customers' data stays safe in future.
data toxic waste

Data – the new oil, or potential for a toxic oil spill?

  • min read
    • Both of these statements were once controversial, but today, they're commonsense. If Equifax, the CIA, the NSA, The Office of Personnel Management, Facebook and dating sites can't keep our secrets secret, then neither can your business. In truth, industry's old, ill-placed confidence in the security of data was always an example of motivated reasoning. Collecting data is so cheap and storing it is so easy, and there were so many analysts and investors and hustling grifters exclaiming that "data is the new oil" that it seemed fiscally irresponsible not to collect everything you could, and retain it forever. Who knew how that data could be put to profitable use in the future? It was raining soup, so it was time to fill your boots – even if you couldn't find a market for soup-in-a-boot today, there was no doubt that such a market would appear in the foreseeable future. Given such a value proposition, it's not surprising that the people doing the collecting and the retaining of data talked themselves into the idea that both activities could be undertaken safely. But of course, they were wrong, and as history has caught up with them – as breach after breach has hit in ever-increasing waves – the rationale has changed. Now, rather than arguing that breaches are inevitable, the story goes that breaches aren't a big deal: every time there's a data breach, company spokespeople recite the catechism: "We take our customers' privacy very seriously. None of the data that leaked was compromising." Some of that is "privacy nihilism" – it was all going to leak eventually, so what's the difference? But there's a more insidious version of this, which argues that breach data isn't a problem because bad people can't do much with it. This isn't just nihilism; it's denialism. Breach apologists argue that the data they leak isn't compromising because it's anonymized, or because key identifiers were removed from it. This profoundly misunderstands how data is used – and abused. Re-identification of anonymized data-sets is a hot research topic for computer science today, with researchers creating automatic tools that piece together disparate data-sets to identify the people in them: for example, you can merge a health authority's database of anonymized prescribing data (doctor, medicine, date and time) with a breached database of taxi journeys that includes trips to hospitals that coincide with the prescribing times to infer who is taking antipsychotic medications, or antiretrovirals or cancer therapeutics. Many data-protection vendors have promised that they can inject noise into data-sets to prevent re-identification, but those promises rarely survive contact with security researchers who evaluate their claims. It's been years since the first significant re-identification theoretical work was done, and things keep getting worse for those who insist that anonymization is possible. Re-identification methods tell us a lot about how digital criminals operate and their incredible frugality and resourcefulness. Usernames and passwords can be recycled in credential-stuffing attacks that allow them to break into security cameras from Ring and Nest, order takeaway meals, or track and immobilize entire fleets of corporate vehicles. Breach identities can be used to overwhelm regulatory proceedings with plausible fake comments or to create fleets of Twitter identities. Criminals operate by combining and recombining data-sets, using one company's breach in combination with a public data source, and a third company's anonymous data release to wreak incredible havoc. They might even get enough data fragments to fraudulently obtain a duplicate deed for your house and sell it to someone else while you're on holiday. Never mind that no one can point to a specific piece of data you're liable to lose control over someday and say, "That, that's the data-point that will cost someone their house, or let their stalker find them or expose their retirement savings to thieves." It's similarly true that no one can point to a specific droplet of dioxin in a factory's illegal effluent pipe and say, "That, that is the carcinogen that will kill a young mother of three, some five miles downstream of the pipe." This doesn't stop companies that poison the water or the air from paying the price. The harms from breaches are stochastic (i.e., randomly determined), not deterministic. So far, remedies for those who have been injured by breaches have been severely limited, but they're getting stiffer. Home Depot's 2014 breach cost it $0.34/customer in direct compensation. But that was then. Breached Yahoo! customers may get compensated $100 each. Facebook just got hit with a $5B fine, and the party's just getting started. The harms from breaches are cumulative: like toxic waste in nature, breaches build up in the information environment, and they are effectively immortal in their potential for damage. As the public – and the law – come to grips with this, we're likely to see greater and greater remedies for those whose data has been released into the wild (forever). Remember, breaches affect everyone alike – all political persuasions, rich and poor, including the governing classes and lawmakers themselves. Inevitably, we will see the framework for breach remedies transformed to look more like the remedies for other probabilistic harms, such as environmental harms. When that happens, it might be too late for you: the data you're warehousing today might already have been ex-filtrated from your network without you even knowing that it's happened – until one of your customers finds out the hard way that you've compromised them, and seeks legal remedies. Your insurer isn't going to write policies for you – or errors and omissions policies for your board – if you're warehousing all this digital toxic waste in leaky digital barrels, not once the penalties for losing control over it start to turn into real money. Maybe you could still justify all that risk if the profits from all that data were commensurate with it. But as researchers keep discovering, the benefits from data are wildly oversold – the efficacy of ad targeting based on users' behavior is almost identical targeting based on the content of the pages where the ads appear, which requires no user data. But if you're an ad-tech company or a Big Tech platform like Facebook or Google, the mystique about the ability of data to convert customers allows you to sell your product as a massive premium, while intimidating potential competitors who think that they will never get started because they can never collect as much data as the companies that are already in the space. The people who claim data is the new oil are people who are selling the data, and the claims they make about the ways that this data lets you do amazing things are sales literature, not peer-reviewed studies. Data was never the new oil. It was always the new toxic waste: pluripotent, immortal – and impossible to contain. You don't want to be making more of it, and you definitely should be getting rid of the supply you've so unwisely stockpiled so far. Data minimization isn't just good practice; it's good business. Collect as little data as you can, and keep it as briefly as you can. If your privacy policy fits on the back of a napkin – because you're collecting almost nothing and processing it only for specific purposes, and then deleting it forever – you're on the right track! This article reflects the opinions of the author.
business reputation data breach

How to strengthen your IT security operations after a data breach

  • min read
    • The aftermath of a data breach can be measured in many ways, depending on who you are. For those outside the organization, the public perception that an organization has been compromised, known as reputational damage, is often quoted as the most significant long-term aspect of a data breach. To measure the effect of a breach on a company's health, Comparitech analyzed the long-term impact on the share prices of breached companies. This research is nuanced and worth reading in full, but one of the headlines from the September 2019 edition is telling: after about a month, share prices rebound and catch up, on average, to NASDAQ performance. And most importantly, the companies keep operating. The companies in the analysis include many brands we continue to use every day in our digital lives: Yahoo!, eBay, LinkedIn and Facebook. So what's the real cost of a data breach? According to research by Adrian Sanabria, a well-regarded former senior analyst in the information security community, there are a relatively small number of companies that are hacked out of existence. Examples of severe consequences for companies of all sizes are few and far between. So for the board, it's easy to under-estimate the impact of a breach by looking at share price or sales targets alone. However, the real impact and costs from loss of continuity go much further. For Kaspersky's Global Corporate IT Security Risks Survey, organizations of all sizes across the globe were asked about the broader costs they have to deal with when recovering from attacks. For enterprises, it's now, on average, a cool $1.4M to clean up a data breach. Beyond the financials, if you want your decision-makers to see all the consequences of a compromise, there are other factors to review. These are harder to define in absolute numbers, but they all affect the company's performance and reputation. Keep these points in mind when assessing risk or advocating for an additional budget for defense. Internal reputation damage The internal reputation of the security team can be hit hard. Regardless of the actual cause, they can be seen as responsible. This has even more risks to the long-term success of the team: Loss of continuity A CISO (Chief Information Security Officer) is often expected to resign after a significant breach; they carry the can as their position is viewed as taking responsibility for the failure. I would argue the removal of a single leader as a way to solve often systemic and complex problems is a strategy only good for Hollywood villains. Next time you're at the cinema, notice how successful their organizations are by the end of the movie. Scapegoating your CISO is an unwise strategy. It will take months, or even years, for the new CISO to be hired then acquire the knowledge of their predecessor, the established relationships, ways of working, and so on. The new CISO, as with any incoming C-suite leader, tend to make changes to make their mark, which can cause further disruptions in continuity and additional strains on the InfoSec team. Low morale Morale is tricky to measure and account for, but from the conversations I have with members of the InfoSec community, your IT staff can be despondent after a breach, particularly the security team. This may be in part due to the implication that their efforts didn't protect the company, and in part, due to burnout from the increased efforts to recover after a breach. The negative effect on Equifax staff is a particularly good example. Individuals were criticized in social media and even received death threats, and without appropriate support from the organization to safeguard team member's reputations and mental health. Increased auditor scrutiny For both your internal audit teams and the third party auditors you bring in, they will all increase their efforts to ensure they're not seen as missing something, and therefore being the party to blame for any future compromise. That sampling approach you used before that saved hours of unnecessary analysis? That won't be allowed anymore. More internal bureaucracy Organizations often respond to a breach by imposing new requirements on all staff, rather than by making the existing requirements easier to understand and follow. This may increase your employees' chances of understanding and following instructions or their willingness to bypass them to get their job done, which, in turn, could increase your organization's exposure to risk. So what should you do differently? With all these potential consequences and risks, here are some tactics you could try to have a happier ending after a breach. Keep your CISO Unless the incident can be directly attributed to an irreversible failure on the part of the CISO, don't fire them to appease customers or shareholders or any other aggrieved group holding a short-term view. Your CISO will have the experience and knowledge you need to see you through this issue. According to Kaspersky's 2019 survey based on more than 20 personal interviews with CISOs, unless the incident was directly their fault, the majority felt their employer would support them. Invest in building a cyber-aware culture Strengthen cyber-awareness training for all employees. This can help your employees work together more effectively in the face of a common enemy (cybercriminals), and appreciate the difficulties the security team faces keeping the organization safe. Plan your breach recovery strategy The best time to prepare for your recovery from a breach is before it happens. Take one step today, maybe start to look at how your organization would detect a breach, or how you can test the detection capabilities you have. Re-examine your existing strategies. For example, Kaspersky's IT Security Economics report highlights the benefits of having a DPO (Data Protection Officer) and SOC (Security Operations Center) in reducing the financial impact of an incident. When estimating impact, at any point before or after an incident, make sure you and your stakeholders appreciate these factors and consider them alongside the financial assessment. Ensure everyone has all the facts, not just those that are easiest to quantify. Any organization today has to "assume breach," from the smallest company keeping an offline backup away from the office to the largest enterprise looking to implement an advanced defense solution stack, which includes EDR (endpoint detection and response) and an anti-targeted attack solution. But a side effect of this wise approach can be an undue pessimism about the effect of being compromised. By giving your CISO confidence to make longterm plans because they'll survive short term problems, by improving the security awareness within your organization and by preparing in advance, you can make it through a compromise relatively unscathed. With a more planned and supportive approach to safeguarding the reputation and strengthening the performance of your InfoSec team, you will build a more secure and resilient organization in the long run. This article was published in Jan, 2020.
security bytes privacy reputation

How to build customer trust when a data breach happens

  • min read
    • Although common in all kinds of organizations and businesses, data breaches still make striking headlines. We all work hard to prevent them, but how should you communicate about data breaches when they happen? In the Security Bytes series, senior InfoSec professionals give their most savvy advice. This time, I asked several cybersecurity experts with incident response experience: Some chose to speak under a pseudonym, but all share sound advice that could help save your company's reputation when, despite your robust work to protect it, a cybercriminal succeeds in accessing your information. Hire the best PR firm Principal Security Consultant L0ra thinks a well-coordinated, experienced PR firm can best handle your company's reputation. She also believes the public responds well when companies admit their mistakes. "The biggest mistake companies make is glossing over their failures, but breaches happen every day. It isn't the first time. It won't be the last. "If the breach is large and public, immediately hire the best PR firm you can afford. "Sometimes, in response to a data breach, you get a raid. That's when a group of people comes at you on the internet. The number one rule for dealing with a raid is, log off and keep quiet. So you need a good PR firm to speak on your behalf." Communicate through the right people, and learn from mistakes Ray Hayes is Senior Software Engineer, Enterprise and Security at Microsoft. He highlights the importance of knowing who you're speaking with and learning from mistakes. "I don't speak about any incident off-the-cuff. I refer all inquiries to my leadership team. "If I'm asked informally about a major data breach or any other incident at my company, I make conversation, but keep it general, and make sure I know who I'm talking to. "Breach response is critical, but prevention is key. "Anyone starting a new job should think, "What could happen if the information I'm working on now was released?'" Involve everyone in planning – before it happens Security engineer Daniel says responding to data breaches must involve more than just the technical people. You need legal experts and business communicators too. "All companies should prepare for data breaches, especially those with data worth stealing. Small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) more often don't recognize the threat. "Before it happens, get everyone involved in making a crisis plan, not just IT. It's not only a technical problem. Involve legal, finance, safety and everyone else. They have valuable insight tech people often don't, and will have their own tasks to do when it happens." Tell customers affected, quickly and honestly James O, Director of Information Security, says informing your customers truthfully is a must. "Our insurance company gives us a Breach Coach to help our PR firm get the messages right. We also coordinate with internal communications to inform the families we serve, and start telling affected people as quickly as possible. We also report under our state data breach laws. "Companies could improve their data breach PR. When my data was accessed in a financial company's breach, I just got a form letter saying, here's your year of identity protection. "At least they included the root cause – leaving generic credentials on a public box – but that doesn't give me confidence that it won't happen again." Avoid the 'sophisticated attack' cliché Security Analyst http_error_418 says PR is vital, but companies must stop exaggerating cyberattackers' skills. "Companies often handle breaches with platitudes. They'll say the attacker was 'advanced' and 'sophisticated.' That's because, when it's later shown their app wasn't patched for eight years, investors are over the initial fright. "We also need to consider when transparency helps, and when it's overkill. "The public often don't fully understand what transparency reveals." Update regularly and learn from the best Cyber Threat Intel Analyst HackerPom points to an example of good practice. "When they know the facts, executives, PR and legal should give the media and customers regular updates. For a good example, look at Norsk Hydro's response to a bad data breach. Their communications were clear and straightforward." Better to overstate than understate the impact Joonatan Kauppi, Founder and CEO of Leijona Security, has several pieces of good advice. "If you're unsure of the impact, it's better to overstate than understate. If you downplay it, then word breaks that it's much more serious, you'll get worse press. "Bring the regulatory authorities into the loop straight away. "Inside the organization, start damage control, and don't skimp on costs. Gather the facts and inform your communicators. "Answer questions from security researchers and other InfoSec people. They ask the right stuff and are a good platform to communicate what happened. "Prepare for the flurry of questions you'll get from people or parties affected. Don't blame. Concentrate on reducing the impact of the breach." Make sure your plan fits all scenarios David Emm, Principal Security Researcher at Kaspersky, says to make sure you're planning for the full range of data that might be breached. "Balance technical and PR in responding to a breach. You can only do this well if you have a process for managing security incidents. Involve the right people across the organization – including IT, HR, legal and PR – and work out a plan before anything happens. The light of experience There are strong themes from these experts when it comes to how to communicate around data breaches. I'm hearing almost everyone say, plan for how you'll respond before it happens, involving people across the organization. Several say, to use the best PR available, and communicate with speed, honesty and regularity. By sharing the right information at the right time, in the right way, you'll get the right outcome: customers understanding how they're affected, and appreciating what you've learned. Article reflects the opinions of the author and speakers quoted. Published in 2019.
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