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Mobile Application Security

Mobile security is a constant issue among many enterprises. As companies continue to go digital and offer online and mobile platforms to their consumers, the rate of mobile security threats multiplies by the day.Having a mobile application is another means of ensuring that the product and services your company offers are readily available for your customers to consume. Connectivity, accessibility, and convenience are among the many factors entrepreneurs must prioritize to deliver in order to establish a good relationship with their market.However, if you fail to properly secure your mobile application and open your consumers – along with your company – the risk of having sensitive and vital information compromised, it will definitely damage your reputation and trust in your brand among consumers significantly.To help you avoid this, we have provided a comprehensive and in-depth checklist of ways to ensure the utmost security for your mobile application and reduce the probability of encountering external cyber threats penetrating your application.What is Mobile Application Security?Before diving into the checklist, allow us to establish the definition of mobile application security to get a wider understanding of the matter.Mobile Application Security is a comprehensive mobile security solution for applications on mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, and the like.It is a practice where you ensure that your product is safe from various cyber attacks, such as malware, reverse engineering, keyloggers, and other forms of manipulation or interference, by implementing the best mobile application security practices available in the market.Moreover, it involves examining the structures of mobile applications and how they work. It also involves checking the major areas of the application and analyzing what hackers or any external threats want to accomplish by penetrating your application.As the world gradually becomes more digital and technology-centric, prioritizing mobile security should be mandatory among businesses.Why is Mobile Application Security Important?At present, there are over 6.64 billion people who own smartphones today. This means that approximately 83% of the population is connected to the internet and is likely to utilize two or more mobile applications and have incorporated them into their daily functions.These substantial numbers showcase the potential and importance of implementing application security on active mobile applications worldwide. The lack thereof can compromise your company’s sensitive data, along with the important data and digital properties owned by your consumers.Since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic and its plethora of social distancing and quarantine regulations, the world has shifted into digitization and adopted its methods into their lifestyles such as work, education, communication, and the like.The primary reason for its importance concerns the safety and security of digital properties, such as identities, finances, and sensitive data, to name a few. Ensuring that your business's mobile application is fully equipped with the right security protocols can help you prevent security breaches that can place you and your consumers at risk.

Other

How Do You Prevent Cyber Attacks?

What Is A Cyber Attack?A cyber attack is performed with malicious intent when a threat actor attempts to exploit a vulnerability or weakness in a system or individuals of an organization. These attacks threaten to steal, alter, destroy, disable or gain access to or make use of an unauthorized asset.Cyber attacks, threats, and vandalism are dangerous and increasing problems for businesses. Nearly all modern-day companies require a network of computers, servers, printers, switches, access points, and routers to operate.Businesses also deploy software tools to streamline functions, like QuickBooks for handling bookkeeping. Unfortunately, while these devices and applications provide a huge benefit to the company, they also represent a risk. All it takes is one employee to click on a malicious link that then gains access to your network and infects your systems.How Do You Prevent Cyber Attacks?Preventing a breach of your network and its systems requires protection against a variety of cyber attacks. For each attack, the appropriate countermeasure must be deployed/used to deter it from exploiting a vulnerability or weakness.The first line of defense for any organization is to assess and implement security controls.However, there are a number of ways to prevent cyber-attacks which include:           Creating a cyber security strategyDeveloping cyber security policiesConducting a security risk assessmentPerforming vulnerability assessmentsConducting employee phishing campaignsImplementing security awareness trainingInstalling spam filters and anti-malware softwareDeploying Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFW)Installing endpoint detection & response (EDR)Using a VPN or SD-WAN solutionImplementing a Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solutionThe different types of cyber-attacks are:Network attacksWireless attacksMalware attacksSocial engineering attacks It’s important to note that no system is 100% vulnerability-free or “hacker-proof”. If a threat actor has enough time, resources, and manpower to launch an attack then chances are they will find a way in.This is especially true of advanced persistent threat groups.Cyber attacks come in all shapes and sizes from deploying an application-specific attack against a database server to sending phishing emails with malicious attachments or URLs.While knowing the purpose of a cyber attack can be helpful it isn’t the main priority. What takes priority is knowing how the attack occurred and how to prevent them from succeeding in the future.The next sections will go in-depth on the different types of cyber-attacks and threats and includes the steps you can take to prevent them from compromising your systems.

Other

What is the Cyber Security Kill Chain?

There are several other cyber kill chain models developed by other companies, but for the sake of simplicity, we’re going to stick with the Lockheed Martin model, which is the best-known framework in the industry. We’ve included explanations as well as brief solutions for each one so you can better understand the process hackers take to breach a target.Step 1: ReconnaissanceLike any form of traditional warfare, the most successful cyber attacks start with lots of information gathering. Reconnaissance is the first step in the cyber security kill chain and utilizes many different techniques, tools, and commonly used web browsing features including hackers take to breach a target.Search enginesWeb archivesPublic cloud servicesDomain name registriesWHOIS commandPacket sniffers (Wireshark, tcpdump, WinDump, etc.)Network mapping (nmap)DIG commandPingPort scanners (Zenmap, TCP Port Scanner, etc.)There is a wide range of tools and techniques used by hackers to gather information about their targets, each of which exposes different bits of data that can be used to find doors into your applications, networks, and databases which are increasingly becoming cloud-based. It’s important that you secure your sensitive data behind cloud-based SASE defenses, encryption, and secure web pages in order to prevent attackers from stumbling on compromising information while browsing through your publicly-accessible assets, including apps and cloud services. Step 2: WeaponizeOnce an attacker has gathered enough information about their target, they’ll choose one or several attack vectors to begin their intrusion into your space. An attack vector is a means for a hacker to gain unauthorized access to your systems and information. Attack vectors range from basic to highly technical, but the thing to keep in mind is that, for hackers, targets are often chosen by assessing cost vs. ROI.Everything from processing power to time-to-value is a factor that attackers take into account Typical hackers will flow like water to the path of least resistance, which is why it is so important to consider all possible entry points along the attack surface (all of the total points in which you are susceptible to an attack) and harden your security accordingly.The most common attack vectors include:Weak or stolen credentialsRemote access services (RDP, SSH, VPNs)Careless employeesInsider attackersPoor or no encryptionSystem misconfigurationTrust relationships between devices/systemsPhishing (social engineering)Denial of service attacksMan-in-the-middle attacks (MITM)TrojansSQL injection attacksAnd many othersRemember: a hacker only needs one attack vector to be successful. Therefore, your security is only as strong as its weakest point and it’s up to you to discover where those potential attack vectors are. Ransomware attacks continue to exploit remote access services to gain entry, make lateral movements, and detect sensitive data for exfiltration, all before encrypting and making ransom requests.So typically once an attacker is in, their next move is to find different ways to move laterally throughout your network or cloud resources and escalate their access privileges so their attack will gather the most valuable information, and they’ll stay undetected for as long as possible. Preventing this kind of behavior requires adopting “Zero Trust” principles, which, when applied to security and networking architecture, consistently demand reaffirmation of identity as users move from area to area within networks or applications.

Network Security

What is Network Monitoring?

What is Network Monitoring?Network monitoring tracks the health of a network across its hardware and software layers. Engineers use network monitoring to prevent and troubleshoot network outages and failures. In this article, we’ll describe how network monitoring works, its primary use cases, the typical challenges related to effective network monitoring, and the main features to look for in a network monitoring tool.How Does Network Monitoring Work?Networks enable the transfer of information between two systems, including between two computers or applications. The Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Model breaks down several functions that computer systems rely on to send and receive data. In order for data to be sent across a network, it will pass through each component of the OSI, utilizing different protocols, beginning at the physical layer and ending at the application layer. Network monitoring provides visibility into the various components that make up a network, ensuring that engineers can troubleshoot network issues at any layer in which they occur.Most network devices come equipped with support for the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) standard. Via SNMP, you can monitor inbound and outbound network traffic and other important network telemetry critical for ensuring the health and performance of on-premise equipment.The Internet Protocol (IP) is a standard used on almost all networks to provide an address and routing system for devices. This protocol allows information to be routed to the correct destination over large networks, including the public internet.Network engineers and administrators typically use network monitoring tools to collect the following types of metrics from network devices:UptimeThe amount of time that a network device successfully sends and receives data.CPU utilizationThe extent to which a network device has used its computational capacity to process input, store data, and create output.Bandwidth usageThe amount of data, in bytes, that is currently being sent or received by a specific network interface. Engineers track both the volume of traffic being sent and the percentage of total bandwidth that is being utilized.ThroughputThe rate of traffic, in bytes per second, passing through an interface on a device during a specific time period. Engineers typically track the throughput of a single interface, and the sum of the throughput of all interfaces on a single device.Interface errors/discardsThese are errors on the receiving device that cause a network interface to drop a data packet. Interface errors and discards can stem from configuration errors, bandwidth issues, or other reasons.IP metricsIP metrics, such as time delay and hop count, can measure the speed and efficiency of connections between devices.Note that in cloud environments, companies purchase compute and network resources from cloud vendors who maintain the physical infrastructure that will run their services or applications. Cloud hosting, therefore, shifts the responsibility of managing the physical hardware onto the cloud vendor.Monitoring Live Network TrafficAbove the hardware layers of the network, software layers of the network stack are also involved whenever data is sent over a network. This mainly involves the transport and application layers of the OSI model (layer 4 and layer 7). Monitoring these layers helps teams track the health of services, applications, and underlying network dependencies as they communicate over a network. The following network protocols are especially important to monitor because they are the foundation for most network communication:Benefits of Network MonitoringNetwork failures can cause major business disruptions, and in complex, distributed networks, it’s critical to have complete visibility in order to understand and resolve issues. For instance, a connectivity issue in just one region or availability zone can have a far-reaching impact across an entire service if cross-regional queries are dropped.One common benefit of monitoring network devices is that it helps prevent or minimize business-impacting outages. Network monitoring tools can periodically gather information from devices to ensure that they are available and performing as expected, and can alert you if they are not. If an issue does arise on a device, such as high saturation on a specific interface, network engineers can act quickly to prevent an outage or any user-facing impact. For example, teams can implement load balancing to distribute traffic across multiple servers if monitoring reveals that one host is not enough to serve the volume of requests.Another benefit of network monitoring is that it can help companies improve application performance. For example, network packet loss can manifest as user-facing application latency. With network monitoring, engineers can identify exactly where packet loss is occurring and remedy the problem. Monitoring network data also helps companies reduce network-related traffic costs by surfacing inefficient cross-regional traffic patterns. Finally, engineers can also use network monitoring to check if their applications can reach DNS servers, without which websites won’t load correctly for users.Modern monitoring tools can unify network data with infrastructure metrics, application metrics, and other metrics, giving all engineers in an organization access to the same information when diagnosing and troubleshooting issues. This ability to consolidate monitoring data lets teams easily determine whether latency or errors stem from the network, code, a host-level issue, or another source.

SEIM Technology

Explore Machine Data With Splunk

 I am going to talk about one of the most trending analytical tools Splunk, which is winning hearts in the fields of big data and operational intelligence. It is a horizontal technology used for application management, security, and compliance, as well as business and Web analytics, with tremendous market demand for professionals with Splunk Certification Training. Splunk is a complete solution that helps in searching, analyzing, and visualizing the log generated from different machines. Through this Splunk tutorial, I will introduce you to each aspect of Splunk and help you understand how everything fits together to gain insights from it.Splunk IntroductionBefore getting started with Splunk, have you ever realized the challenges with unstructured data and the logs coming in real-time? For example- live customer queries, an increased number of logs through which the size of the dataset keeps on fluctuating every minute. How can all of these problems be tackled? Here, Splunk comes to the rescue.Splunk is a one-stop solution as it automatically pulls data from various sources and accepts data in any format such as .csv, JSON, config files, etc. Also, Splunk is the easiest tool to install and allows functionality like searching, analyzing, reporting as well as visualizing machine data. It has a huge market in IT infrastructure and business. Many big players in the industry are using Splunk such as Dominos, Adobe, Bosch, Vodafone, Coca-Cola, etc.Splunk ArchitectureAs you can see in the above image, Splunk has some really cool advantages:-Splunk collects data in real-time from multiple systems-It accepts data in any form, for example- log file, .csv, JSON, config, etc.-Splunk can pull data from databases, the cloud, and any other OS-It analyzes and visualizes the data for better performance-Splunk gives alerts/ event notifications-Provides real-time visibility-It satisfies industry needs likSplunk’s architecture comprises various components and functionalities. Refer to the below image which gives a consolidated view of the components involved in the process:As you can see in the above image, Splunk CLI/ Splunk web interface or any other interface interacts with the search head. This communication happens via Rest API. You can then use search head to make distributed searches, set up knowledge objects for operational intelligence, perform scheduling/ alerting, and create reports or dashboards for visualization. You can also run scripts for automating data forwarding from remote Splunk forwarders to pre-defined network ports. After that, you can monitor the files that are coming in real-time and analyze if there are any anomalies, and set alerts/ reminders accordingly. You can also perform routing, cloning, and load balancing of the data that is coming in from the forwarder before they are stored in an indexer. You can also create multiple users to perform various operations on the indexed data.

Cloud Services

Kubernetes terminology

Although I'm not a DevOps guy, I wanted to learn more about this engineering.It's an area I always semi-understood but never took the time to explore beyond that.Kubernetes was available to me as an engineer, and it worked without knowing why half the time. So I decided it was time to explore it more in detail. And what better way to do so than to write some articles about it?In an upcoming couple of articles, we'll be deep diving into Kubernetes, what it is, what each component is, and even how we can set it up.IntroductionThe description given by Kubernetes is a portable, extensible, open-source platform for managing containerized workloads and services. It facilitates both declarative configuration and automation.So, it's a perfect way to manage containerized deployment as a uniform standard. You might also hear the name K8S, which is the same as Kubernetes. (It comes from the eight letters between the K and the S). Google originally developed the system, and they open-sourced it back in 2014 you can read a good background story here.Why do we need this?First, we must keep in mind that we are talking about containerized deployments.You might be familiar with traditional deployment. This is when we get a physical server and deploy the code on that server we own. The problem with this was scalability and maintainability.As you can imagine, it was tough to maintain it when more resources were needed, or a machine failed over time.The follow-up to this was virtual deployments. It allows one to run multiple virtual machines on one physical server's CPU. This meant we could more easily scale them and move them to another physical server. As for containerized deployments, it's very close to virtual, but with one big difference. They share the OS between the applications. The big benefit is that they become decoupled from the infrastructure and can run across multiple clouds and OS distributions.So, where does Kubernetes come into play?You want to ensure your application is always up and running in production environments. This means one container might go down at a given stage. You want to ensure there's always a backup container up and running, so the application has no downtime.But can you imagine having to set this up yourself and manage each system yourself? This will become a nightmare. Thus, Kubernetes can help you orchestrate this more easily. It provides a framework to run systems and takes care of scaling and failovers. It also comes with deployment patterns and so on.Service discovery and load balancing: Kubernetes can expose containers using DNS name, so if traffic is high, Kubernetes can load balance your traffic to several containers to ensure the app is stable.Rollouts and rollbacks: You can state how you want your system to be deployed, which means you should first set up the new deployment and only then retire the old one, or you can pick another strategy. Besides this, you can opt to describe a rollback scenario.Bin packing: We can provide Kubernetes with a cluster of nodes and tell it how much CPU and memory each container needs. Kubernetes can fit containers on these nodes and help us use our resources in the best possible fashion.Self-healing: Kubernetes can take care of restarting containers that fail or even deprecate them and spool up new ones.Config management: It also provides a way to manage and store secrets and config to safely inject your stack without ever exposing it.