#3. “Low Hanging Fruit”

Easy Ins for Opportunistic Hacking

In dealing with security, and specifically in looking for points of entry within a network, we always look at breadth first, not depth. After all, most hackers are looking for the path of least resistance. If there is an easy way to break in, it will be exploited a hundred times before any real effort has to be put into compromising your network.

We refer to these vulnerabilities that can be very easily exploited with publicly available hacking tools as ‘low hanging fruit’ – easy targets for malicious entities; and most organizations are surprised at just how many of these weak points exist in their systems.

The Solution

To identify low hanging fruit, we adopt the most popular and prevalent contemporary hacking techniques to test a network. The truth is, we normally don’t have to go very deep into the repertoire of hacking expertise to find a way in.

All the tools our security assessment team uses in these tests are publicly available (free on the internet), and we act as a malicious user and attempt to gather as much info about the company we can to break in. We look for low hanging fruit in the form of unpatched programs or misconfigured systems that will be vulnerable to known exploits. These things can be compromised directly. The majority of the time, this kind of shallow attack produces an inlet into the network.

The quickest break-in we ever executed was three minutes after arriving on site. After three minutes, we had domain admin – control of all their networks and all their servers. 75% of the networks we are hired to test are compromised by our team in the first day or two.

Now really, this sounds like bragging, but it isn’t. And that’s the point. We get into most networks using a path of least resistance that could be found and followed by the majority of hackers.

It’s not that our team are made up of brilliantly creative hackers that operate a cut above most in the field; it’s that using software that is free to download anywhere, and techniques that nearly anyone could adopt, any determined hacker can find a way into 75% of networks out there within a day or two. This is because it doesn’t take a brilliant or unprecedented hacking mind to break into a network, since most have low hanging fruit that can be exploited by even the laziest malicious attacks.

So what could it mean to your network to identify and deal with this low hanging fruit? It means being among the 25% of companies that are difficult enough to break into to discourage the average hacker – who is more opportunistic than determined. Eliminating low hanging fruit will put you out of reach of the majority of malicious opportunists.

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#2. The “One-Big-Wall” Security Structure

It is in no way defeatist to say, though it’s likely no fun to hear, that at some point, the big, bad outer wall of your security will be breached.

Sorry.

So the point of building your security must be centered on a belief that technology and staff are equally fallible. At some point, something is going to get through – no matter how much confidence is inspired by your slick new software. This assumption is where security work begins. A strong security solution is one that does not rely on one, unscalable wall; strong security is built will fallbacks and stops within each wall.

The problem is, most security networks are not built like a fortress. They’re more often built like an egg: an extremely hard layer of security and nothing beyond it to protect the soft inside.

Ideally, getting through the first wall of a security setup shouldn’t get a hacker much access. In our work as a security assessment service, we find that most networks, once breached, are wide open within. Once a malicious entity get a foothold inside, they’ll be able to get access to anything they need or want.

The Solution

In layman’s terms, security should be provisioned in layers. After gaining something like username/password access into your inside network, intruders should have to jump through hoops to get in deeper. Detection policies should be set up at each level to catch and eliminate malicious presences.

Essentially, if you’re spending all of your resources on your outer wall, you’re making a dangerous gamble that will likely grant a free lunch to any hacker that makes it through.

Rather than expending 100% of your time and resources on keeping a hacker from getting in, steps should be taken to stop a hacker who has already gotten in.

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#1. The User

It shouldn’t be too surprising to anyone following security trends to hear that the human user is nearly always the weakest link in a security strategy. In our work as a Security Assessment group, we’ve certainly found it to be true. And we’re not talking about disgruntled or malicious internal users who have decided to do some damage. It happens, but this isn’t the main concern.

No, the fact is that each user is a constant potential breach – not because of their intent, but because of their lack of education. More and more, users are relying on a growing trust of advancing security technology. And this is largely because their administrators do the same.

If security is only taken seriously on the software level, breaches are going to happen.

In working to gaining access into large networks, malicious outsiders will expect strong fortifications. Attacking head on is hit or miss, so hackers will try to weasel their way into getting someone to unwittingly open the door for them. Passwords can be guessed for user based on the information they have put up on social media sites. Malicious emails get by users every day, since they trust in the fact that the company spam filters are sure to weed out anything damaging.

In addition, as businesses become employ more mobile devices, a goldmine of information becomes potentially available to an attacker. Users have not yet learned to be paranoid or even cautious in regards to how they use their mobile devices. Joining a compromised network, viewing questionable emails and other easy mistakes can give outsiders a quick foothold in your network.

The Solution

You can’t just put the security responsibility on the IT administrator. Formidable security can only come from the top down, as established policy laid out clearly for all employees. No amount of fancy technology will do you any good without an internal foundation to support it. Informed security guidelines need to be set on the executive level and subsequently enforced at all lower levels.

Essentially, you should be relying on your IT staff and your technology to back up your powerful security culture.

Need help?

Get Started today. And have a look at how we approach Security Assessments.

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